Broken Chains
by Velsun
Summary: After everything that's happened, I'm glad to know my team has my back, even if they don't recognize me. But I can't live like this. This isn't my body, and this isn't what I want to stay as. Seeing as how I was put this way by a legendary, there's only one option left. Hunt them down and demand they put me back to normal. No matter what happens, I WILL become human again.
1. Chapter 1: Flash

"Alright, let's see how far we are from the next gym," I said to no one in particular as I checked my map. Pinpointing our exact location on the map, I checked to see how much farther we had to walk. I sighed. "Sorry guys, looks like we've still got at least two more days till we make it to the Fortee gym. Winona is said to specialize in bird type pokemon, so we'll have to devise a plan depending on what pokemon she brings out. Damn, she might actually be pretty tough."

"Flaaff, flaaffy." Venus, my flaaffy, said. I could only guess she said something along the lines of, 'We'll be fine if we just stay calm.' Then again, I could be totally wrong. I could ask my Meowstic, James, to translate, but at this point, it's probably too much effort for such a small thing.

"Well, no use worrying about it right now. We might want to set up camp soon. What do you guys think? I don't mind walking a bit farther, but if you guys are tired, I can stop. I guess there's a third option, though, and that is I can put you in your pokeball and carry you while you rest," I stated. "Doesn't bother me, up to you guys," I stopped as I turned to my party of pokemon.

I was never one for keeping my pokemon trapped in their pokeballs unless it was absolutely necessary, or they wanted to go in themselves. I generally just followed the golden rule when it came to pokemon - Treat others the way you want to be treated. Well, I definitely would hate to be trapped in a ball all day, and only really come out to battle or eat. That kind of life is… depressing, to say the least. I didn't even capture my pokemon in the conventional way, instead opting for a more sincere and kinder approach. Rather than beating a wild pokemon into submission, I would ask if they would like to accompany me on a journey to get gym badges and explore the world. Needless to say, it was rather hard to get anyone to join at first. Somehow, however, we managed to get a team going, and defeated the first 5 gyms of Hoenn.

The only one who was with me from the start was my Blaziken, Feeny, who was given to me as my starter pokemon. Feeny, who at the time was a torchic, wanted to go out and see the world, or at least that's what I seemed to understand from her behavior. I offered her the option to leave if she didn't want to go with me, but she seemed even more fired up than me to go out and explore the world. We bonded closely after that, camping together and going through multiple routes.

"Blaziken," Feeny simply said as she pointed towards my pokeball. Venus and Foley (my breloom) also nodded. _That's three for chilling in the pokeball._ I looked at my other 3 pokemon. They shook their head.

"Alright, I'll call you out when it's time for dinner," I promised. One by one, I sent those Foley, Venus, and Feeny back into their pokeballs. That left Julia, Drake, and James left to walk with me. Julia was my Ninetales, who had this motherly air about her. She always made sure I was safe, or not doing anything dangerous. It was rather annoying sometimes, but I appreciated it nonetheless. Drake was my flygon, and the newest member of our team. We found him after the 4th gym when he was still a Vibrava. As luck would have it, he evolved right before we fought Norman. He's very mischievous, friendly, and a bit of a trickster. He was, however, very loyal. Before we even made it a quarter of the way to Petalburg city, he was following us, watching our moves. I think he wanted to feel a part of something, and that's why he joined us.

That just leaves James, my meowstic. He was the third one to join our group. It was really strange that a pokemon from Kalos was in Hoenn. Because he was a psychic, he could telepathically talk to me if he wanted to. He also served as the group translator for anything important. James was a rather serious pokemon, instead opting to be more strong willed and adult-like. Him and Julia were the 'parents' of the group.

When I tried to ask him about why he was here, he would simply respond 'I was brought here.' After the third or fourth time of asking, he barked 'I was brought here on a ship, away from where I was born! Coming here wasn't my choice, but I'm here now! Drop it, right now.' After that, I didn't dare ask again. Not while it was such a touchy subject.

The sun began to set, painting the sky to be what I presume a bright orange. A few pidgeys and tailows flew over us, more likely than not attempting to get back to their nests before dark. A rattata ran in front of us, looked at us, and continued to run to my right. The fall breeze brushed past me, causing me to zip up my jacket and pull out my beanie from my backpack.

I was pretty unequipped for the fall and soon to be winter nights. All I wore was a short sleeved shirt, jeans, some boots, and a jacket, along with a beanie. My jacket wasn't even that heavy, instead more of a light sports jacket. Not only that, but my jeans were ripped, so that didn't really help. Thankfully I had some money left over from the last few gyms and trainer battles, so I should be able to get some new clothes when I arrived at Petalburg city.

I kept walking down the dirt path that many pokemon trainers before me had walked, with James to my side. Julia and Drake were behind us, talking about god knows what. Probably about the next gym. At least, that's what I imagined Julia was talking about. Drake was probably just making jokes with her.

"Nine, tai Ninetales tail ni," Julia blurted rather quickly.

"Fly. Fly gon gon," Drake chuckled.

"Hmmm?" I added. Whatever Drake asked before then seemed to have caught Julia by surprise. James looked up at me, before he and I noticed Julia glaring at him. A small grin escaped James' normally stoic face before he looked back at me.

"Ninetales!" Julia shouted quickly. James sighed before he nodded at her.

"What's this all about?" I asked, finally letting my curiosity get to me.

I felt James' voice in my head. " _They want to know when we're going to make camp for the night."_

I shook my head. "That doesn't sound right. Julia was rather quick to reply to Drake, so something tells me it was something embarrassing," I grinned. "C'mon, spill the beans." I turned to look at Julia, who in turn quickly looked away, clearly embarrassed. A small blush appeared on her normally white face. I chuckled. "You really shouldn't be embarrassed over whatever it is. I've showered with you guys. Twice. I doubt whatever you said could be worse than that."

"Ninetales, Nine nine." Julia whispered with her head lowered.

" _She said she doesn't want to talk about it,"_ James said. Julia said something else. " _Oh, and she said you were the one who suggested to shower together."_

"Look, you might not know this, but a pokemon hotel is expensive. And when you pay by the hour, and they bill you for water, you try to save as much money as you can," I responded. "It's too bad I couldn't save my dignity though…" I whispered that last part.

Drake flew above me and went to look at a tree he found interesting. A caterpie came out, looked at him, and quickly went back into the hole in the tree. "Leave them alone, Drake. We're gonna be eating soon anyways."

The sun was completely gone now, leaving us in complete darkness. "Yeah, we should probably stop." I left the path to walk near the mountain next to us. There was no way we could go up it at this angle, but we could at least- Hey! _No way! What luck!_ In front of us was a small opening in the mountain, small enough that no big pokemon would hide in there, but big enough for me and my pokemon to take shelter in. "This should be good."

I released Feeny, Foley, and Venus from their pokeballs. "We're gonna stop here for tonight. I'm too tired to keep going, and it's dark. If possible, can a few of you to help look for some berries? I won't have enough to make a filling meal without them."

"Bre! Breloom!" Foley started. Drake also piped up. "Alright you two, we need a decent amount of oran berries, and some leppa berries. A figy berry would be great too, but if you can't find any, that's fine. I'd help you but uh," I pointed to my eyes, "Arceus dealt me this hand, and I have to play it." Foley and Drake nodded, and began searching for the berries I asked for.

The clearing next to us had no fallen branches, so I walked farther away from the cave and towards the trees to my left. Sticks littered the ground in a random order, leaving themselves vulnerable to be picked by bird pokemon for their nests. I crouched down, grabbing the bigger pieces of wood for the fire. I managed to grab 4, and a few smaller ones. As I was about to grab my 5th one, a furry hand grabbed it from me. "Blaze," Feeny said as she put the stick into her pile. She was carrying much more than I was, and even a few leaves to help kindle the fire.

"Well, it seems like you beat me," I laughed. Feeny smiled as she nodded. "Let's get back then, we should have enough." We walked in silence the short way back to our campsite. Arriving back at the campsite, I could see Venus and Julia sitting down and talking, while James looked off in the distance. "You guys okay? I'll start cooking as soon as Drake and Foley come back from looking for berries." Julia and Venus voiced what I assumed to be an 'okay', while James said nothing. I noticed a small pile of stones nearby, and presumed that Julia and/or Venus gathered them. The drill was the same as always, everyone contributed to gathering supplies when we were out of towns, and into the wild. Drake and Foley usually were the ones to go gather berries if we needed it. I'm more certain than not that they only wanted that job so they could sneak off a few berries for themselves. Those two were troublemakers, always playing pranks on each other, and sometimes the rest of the group. Surprisingly, the only one they haven't messed with so far has been James. _That probably has something to do with the glare he gives them when they do their pranks._

I stacked the sticks in the middle and encircled the rocks around them. "Feeny or Julia, could you go ahead and start the fire?" I asked. Julia was about to stand up when Feeny shook her head, and got closer to the stick pile. She took a deep breath, and began to breathe out a small stream of fire. The fire took hold, and after some tending to it, the fire became tamed and strong.

No one said anything as the fire crackled. I started to pull out my cooking tools and pot, and arranged it so the pot began to get warm. My stomach began to growl slightly, although no one seemed to notice. _Jeez, I hope they're okay._

" _Where did you learn to cook anyways?"_ James asked as his voice rang in my head.

"When I was in the orphanage. A lot of the time I was bored, and would rather read than hang out with the other kids"

" _Wasn't it lonely? I mean you're only, 11?"_

"12, actually. I turn 13 in a few months. And to answer your question, I bonded with the pokemon at the orphanage, so it wasn't too lonely." Venus started talking to James, clearly wanting to be included in the conversation.

" _Venus says you cook really well, except for that one time you tried to make spelon berry cupcakes."_

"Are you going to hold that over my head for the rest of my life? I said I was sorry, damn.," I complained. I remembered the thought of me cooking cupcakes for my team over their victory at one of the gyms, I can't remember which one. I shuddered at the aftermath of those terrible cupcakes. No one would eat my food for the next few days after that, so I had to buy packaged food. "I got better at cooking, didn't I?"

Feeny spoke up, "Blaziken, Blaze."

Julia responded to that, "Nine. Ninetales tail, nine."

" _Feeny said she couldn't move after eating it for a day, and Julia said it wasn't that bad,_ " James translated.

I shook my head. "Feeny, I know you're over exaggerating. Julia, however, is under exaggerating. They were pretty bad. I'm sorry, but at least it was a learning experience. Hell, I think we could use that as a lethal weapon if we're ever under attack by a wild pokemon."

" _You think you could cook those death muffins that quickly?"_ James grinned.

"Who knows. You keep them back from me while I cook, and I can paralyze them after 15-30 minutes of cooling," I paused as I heard the soft sound of wing flapping and leaves crunching. I turned to see Drake and Foley carrying a decent amount berries. "Took your time, did you?" I asked.

"Fly, Flygon Flygon," Drake responded as he handed me his berries, before Foley did the same. I placed them in a pile near my backpack as I fished out my utensils. I looked at a berry, holding it closely to my eye, as I began to look and see any difference between that berry and another berry.

"Hey uh, what color is this? Is this the oran berry?" I asked. Being unable to see what color anything was was not something I cherished.

" _That's mostly yellow, with a few orange spots,"_ James helped.

"Oh, so it's the figy berry I asked for! Thanks, you guys!" I thanked Drake and Foley.

"B-Breloom," Foley waved it off, slightly embarrassed about being thanked.

"Alright, let me get started on this food," I stated before I started to pull out the ingredients needed to make the food. I began to dice the berries needed, and split the figy berry in 6 different slices. Next, I grabbed some of the meat I had in my bag, still preserved. I laid the meat in the pot, and put in the berries. "Wait, hold on. This might take a bit longer than I thought."

I heard groans in response.

* * *

After 25 minutes, I managed to whip up makeshift tacos for my pokemon. Making food with only the small amount of ingredients wasn't really that easy, and I wanted to make something with everything we had left. Tomorrow, however, we were gonna have to scavenge for food, or get some fresh meat from a magikarp. _Well, that's future me's problem. Next time, I'll remember to get more food for the long haul._

"Soups on, baby! Come and get it," I said as I put down the plates for everyone. I grabbed one for myself, and began to chow down, watching the rest of my pokemon do the same. "Could use some hot sauce, buuuuut I suppose this will have to do." I recalled the cookbook I read to make these tacos, 'Food for you and your pokemon: How to cook easy meals for your journey.' _Man, that was a good one. I'll need to pick up another next time I go to a bookstore._

I took a sip of water from my bottle as I looked at my watch. The time was 10:57 PM. I didn't expect my cooking to take that long. After a full stomach, I could feel the fatigue of the day hitting me like a truck. I stifled a yawn, as I stretched. "We good to sleep?" I asked. My response was affirmations. "Alright then, I'm gonna go ahead and put my sleeping bag in the cave. Make yourself comfortable everyone. I'll set my alarm for… 8:30. Should be enough time to get some good sleep in."

Foley, Drake, Venus, and James walked into the cave, while the two fire-types waited for me to grab my sleeping bag before following behind me. I set my backpack near the entrance of the cave, and removed my shoes. Laying the sleeping bag on the floor, I couldn't help but notice that Julia and Feeny were waiting for me to lie down before they did. I sighed, knowing how those two acted. Feeny had a big sister type of personality, always being defensive of me and usually taking my side if there was a debate. So when her and Julia were together on my ass about something, there was no winning, and especially no escape. Having her and Julia baby me around was sort of annoying, but at the same time I also appreciated it. Still, whenever it came to camping, Julia refused to sleep away from me, and so did Feeny. When I asked James why they were acting like that, he said 'They said something about worrying for your body temperature.'

Naturally, they didn't even realize that while I was warm, I woke up drenched in sweat every morning. That's not to say it was their fault, entirely. No, usually when I woke up, somehow all the rest of my pokemon were huddled together, with me being at the middle. I smiled at the thought. Julia noticed and cocked her head slightly. "Don't worry about it, J."

I slid into my sleeping bag, getting cozy. As if on queue, Julia lied on the ground where my head would go, letting me use her as a pillow. Feeny lied down parallel to me, and Venus and Drake lied to my other side and feet, respectively. Foley lied down next to Venus. The only one who wasn't lying down next to me was James, who had his back against the rocky interior of the cave. "You doing alright, James?" I asked.

" _I'm fine, not too tired right now. I'll lay down in a few minutes."_ He said telepathically.

"If you say so, just don't stay up too late, okay? I'd prefer if we were all well rested when we wake up." Setting my alarm on my watch for 8:30 am, I slowly nuzzled into my ninetail's soft fur, dreaming of the sleep to come.

I began to count mareep jumping over a fence. _1...2...3...4...5… What am I doing, this stupid trick never works. 6...7…_

* * *

I woke up to the sound of something rustling outside. I lazily rubbed the sleepiness away from my eyes, but to no avail. After looking around, I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. So what was that noise? I looked over to see James sleeping against the wall where I saw him last. Maybe I just imagined the noise? Nightmares weren't uncommon for me, so maybe I heard it in my mind and just thought I-

 _-There._ It was only for a second, but I noticed a shadow outside. I quickly got up, fear now overtaking any sleepiness I had early. It could be just a wild pokemon, which I wouldn't be afraid of. Alternatively, it could have been a person, probably here to rob me, or kidnap me. Stories of trainers being abducted in the night by a mysterious group weren't uncommon. _But to think something like that could happen to me? You never expect these things to happen to you, and you're invincible. Yet, that isn't the case. I should've been more careful, I should've decided to keep going, or find a more secluded spot to camp._ I shook my head, and some of the thoughts went away. _Calm down, you're getting ahead of yourself. It's probably just a pokemon. Still, better to check it out. If I don't, I'll never be able to go back to sleep._

I shakily walked over Drake, making sure not to wake up my team. I didn't want to wake them up simply because I was scared, more likely than not caused by my overactive imagination. Stepping out of the cave, the first thing I noticed was how cold it was outside, with the wind blowing the hair out of my eyes. I shivered, wanting to go back inside and cuddle with my warm team. I soldiered on though, looking for the shadow. Just as I was about to give up, I noticed my backpack was missing. "Oh no," I whispered. That bag had all the essentials I needed to live out here. It was my lifeline, and to lose it would deal a heavy blow in my journey.

I heard the sound of fabric ripping not too far off to my right. Quickly, I ran to the noise, assuming it coming from my backpack, I ran past the bushes, and next to a tree before I saw the cause of the noise. A teddiursa was in the process of trying to tear open my bag.

"Shoo, go away. Go!" I whispered harshly at it. The teddiursa didn't notice me at first, and was startled. Quickly, it stood up and ran away, leaving behind the backpack. I sighed as I walked over to my backpack to see if everything was still in their spots. There was a long vertical gash on the side of the backpack, meaning I could see into it without having to unzip it. _Fuck me, I'm gonna have to get another one. Everythings going to fall out if I don't position it in a certain way._ I looked into my bag. I know I had duct tape somewhere, and while it wasn't going to fix the backpack, it could salvage it for another couple nights before I managed to get another.

I heard the bushes rustle again from where the teddiursa ran away, "I said shoo, go away," I repeated without looking at it. What greeted me instead was a snarl as the pokemon in question came out of the brush and into view. "Y-you're not a teddiursa," I stuttered.

An ursaring stood in front of me, with a very angry look on its face. I watched in horror as another 2 came out from behind it, with the little shitstain that was the teddiursa following close behind. The whole family was here, and I was about become part of their dinner. "Woah, hold on. B-be cool. You want the backpack? Y-you can take it man. I-I just n-need my wallet," I bargained. The ursaring roared in response to my bargaining. I fell flat on my ass as I attempted to scramble away. Air quickly flew in my direction, as I suspected the ursaring attempted to swipe in my direction.

Fear enveloped my body, and I turned around and dashed back to my campsite. Without even needing to turn back, I could hear them hot on my trail. "Guys!" I yelled, hoping my team would wake up. I realized I was still carrying the backpack, and decided to drop it, hoping it would cause the ursarings to leave me alone.

It didn't.

They were still on my ass. I saw a familiar blue shape running towards me. _James!_

" _Damn, I knew I sensed something else nearby. I can't believe I fell asleep."_ I heard his voice in my head.

"James, use psybeam, please for the love of Arceus," I pleaded as I ran towards him.. He simply nodded as his ears went up, revealing a pair of eyes underneath it. A quick beam shot past me, and hit one of the ursarings, but that didn't seem to stop him. "Use confusion!" I ordered as I ran past him. I saw Foley and Julia run out and get into battle positions. I finally turned around and faced alongside with them, no longer as scared now that I had my team with me. "Foley, use force palm, and Julia, use quick attack!" They nodded as they began to do as they were told.

Feeny ran out next to me, and began to charge a flamethrower. "NO!" I commanded. She stopped abruptly. After being startled, she gave me a look that said 'Why the hell not?' "We don't want to set the forest on fire. If we do that, we're done for, physically and legally." I answered her question. "Use sand attack instead, help out everyone else."

Foley was in the process of taking on an ursaring all by himself, while James and Julia tag teamed another. The third ursaring must have been confused, because it was swinging wildly at air, and turning around multiple times. The teddiursa was nowhere to be found, probably watching the fight from a distance. I had no doubt my team could take care of the threat, but I was still worried for their safety. "Actually, go get the others, we might need the rest of them to take care of this quickly." Feeny nodded as she ran back into the cave. How they weren't awake already, I wasn't sure. I could have sworn my yelling was loud enough.

The fighting continued as my team started to overpower the other pokemon. But something didn't feel right. It was almost like… I noticed in the corner of my eye, 2 houndooms eyeing us cautiously, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Venus ran out right next to me. I quickly pointed in the houndooms direction, and said "Thunder wave, then use an electro ball!"

She quickly nodded before she began to attack. After using electro ball, the houndooms scampered away. "You need to go help Foley, he's fighting one on his own, and that confusion for the other one won't last much- What the hell!?"

A pink flash of light lit up the sky. Everyone, and I mean everyone, stopped fighting to look up. It looked like a spear, the way the light was. The light was almost as bright as the sun, causing me to have to squint and cover my eyes. Without any warning, the light shot past me and into the mountain, causing it to explode in dust and debris. Rumbling ensued, and I heard the tell-tale signs of a rockslide starting. "RUN, GET AWAY FROM THE MOUNTAIN!" I yelled. It seemed like the ursarings had the same idea, as they began to run away. I quickly looked up, noticing a boulder tumbling down and about to land on Venus. I dove into her and picked her up, pushing her out of the immediate danger, but landing us back into the cave. Feeny and Drake were about to rush out before I forcefully pushed them back to the edge of the cave. "Don't go." I yelled over the sounds of the rockslide.

I covered my eyes as dust began to invade it. Slowly, the sounds began to fade out, but not the rumblings. I wiped my eyes and coughed, before I opened them. It was pitch black. There was no hint of the moonlight at all. "Is everyone okay?" I asked. I got quiet affirmations as I set Venus down on the ground. I forgot I was still sheltering her for a second.

"We're gonna be okay. Don't worry everybody. They'll get us, or they'll get help. We'll be fine," I assured everyone. However, I wasn't sure if I was trying to comfort them, or myself. "I'd estimate we'll be out of here within the hour… Two or three at most. What was that anyways? Everything was really bright pink in the sky, and then-" I was cut off by the sounds of rumbling again. Was there another rockslide going on outside!? I hope the other half of my team was okay, I prayed to Arceus to protect them from any harm that would come their way.

I heard the sound of cracking. I looked down to see - and feel- the ground beneath us giving way. _There's another cave under us!?_ I tried to get to the edges of the cave before it collapsed, so I could stay up, but the ground opened up beneath us just as I was about to move.

Everyone in the cave screamed as we fall into the black abyss.


	2. Chapter 2: Pitch Black

"AGH!" I hit the ground, but didn't stop moving, but there was a sharp pain in my right thigh. I could feel my pants and back being soaked with something as I continuously slid downwards. _Am I on a slide!?_ I thought as I didn't stop moving. I had no idea where Venus, Feeny, or Drake were. Were they in front of me, behind me, or did we somehow get separated? I used my arms to cover my face as I felt spiderwebs hit me.

I could feel my feet breaking what I presumed to small stalagmites as I slid downwards. I started to panic more as I felt myself speeding up. The angle went from about a 45 degree angle to an 85 degree angle. I let out a yelp as I felt gravity start to take me wherever it pleased.

The clothes on my body became drenched as I felt myself make contact with a pool of water. Without missing a beat, something landed on top of me, pushing me farther down into the pool. I clawed at anything I could to try and pull myself up. Oxygen in my body began to leave me as I panicked, and I realized I needed air. I finally grabbed onto something, what I could only consider to be part of a rocky wall. With no hesitation, I used the wall to push my head above the water.

My coughing was the only thing I could hear throughout the cave besides the sound of running water, as I struggled to stay above the water. I couldn't swim, so holding onto the rock was my lifeline. There was still a sharp pain in my thigh, but I couldn't see how badly it was damaged. I was scared. Drowning was a number one fear of mine, but drowning in a pitch black cave alone created a whole new level of fear.

I heard a splash as something resurfaced from the water. I didn't hear anything else before something grabbed my waist. I screamed as I tried to push it off me. Letting go of the wall, I used my arms to try and peel whatever it was around me, slowly causing me to sink. "Let go, let me go!" I screamed, trying to break free.

"BLAZE! BLAZIKEN, BLA-ZI-KEN!" I heard a familiar voice next to me. I slowly stopped flailing, realizing that Feeny was the one holding on to me. She came to hold onto me because she knew I couldn't swim. As a fire-type, she must be miserable in this water, and yet, the first thing she did when she resurfaced was grab onto me to keep me afloat.

"Oh god, Feeny, we're going to die down here," I responded, unable to hide the fear that coated my voice. "I'm so sorry, I should've kept going and not stopped here. I'm so scared, I don't-" I stopped as I felt something on my head. Was she… Petting me? Whatever she seemed to do was working, though, as I felt myself calm down. I leaned my head into her chest as I felt her legs kick to keep us afloat.

After a few minutes, I heard something above us. "What's that noise?" I asked as I looked upwards. It was still pitch black, but my night vision was coming in barely. I could only make out distinct shapes. There was another part of the cave about 12 feet above us, where there was no water, but no conceivable way to reach it. I could also see where we came out from, a hole around what I guessed to be 3 feet in diameter. Looking back straight up, I saw a round shadowy object coming closer to us. I flinched, before the feeling of weightlessness took me over.

"Flygon, fly fly. Gon?" I heard.

"Blaze, Bla," Feeny responded as she let me go.

Drake, or who I presumed to be Drake, picked me up, carrying me out of the hole. The flygon placed me on the ground once we reached dry land, before going back into the hole to pick up Feeny. I was lying on the ground before I heard a sniffle, and sat up on my elbows. "F-F-Flaaffy, F-Flaa…" I heard Venus cry as I felt herself hug me.

"Hey, don't worry, we're okay. We're okay…" I comforted her, trying my hardest to hide my fear. Feeny would be better at comforting than I would, thanks to her big sister status. Venus was the youngest of the group, just slightly younger than Foley. As such, she was easily timid and scared, but she was really caring for the rest of the group. She saw us as a giant family, and I couldn't blame her.

The soft sounds of wings drew my attention to my left, as Drake set down Feeny next to me before setting himself down. "It's still much too dark to see anything. We gotta find a way out of here," I stated as I stood up. Immediately, a sharp pain shot up my right thigh, causing me to fall to the ground with an 'oof'. The three pokemon rushed to my side. "I'm okay, just… Give me a second. Feeny, is there anyway you can light up the cave for a bit?" I asked.

I presumed she nodded as she walked away, looking around the corners for something. She came back near me, and placed somethings on the ground a few feet away from me with a 'clack'. Light flooded the cave as Feeny burned some sticks on the ground. _Where the hell did you find those, Feeny?_ With the fire lighting up the cave, I was able to see my team. Venus' face was tear stained, and her wool was all messed up with spiderwebs and dust adorning it. Drake looked mostly the same, with a few cuts on his arms and sides. Feeny was soaked, and had a long, thin cut on her left arm. She was staring at something though. "B-blaze," She stuttered. I followed her gaze, letting out a gasp as I saw what she was talking about.

In my thigh was a long, thick, sharp piece of rock pierced into and through my skin from both ends. Blood was pouring out from the wound, soaking my jeans a dark red. Blood very slightly started to pool around my thigh, but not enough to cause any immediate worry. _That must have been the pain I felt when I first landed down on the water slide. Even though it hurts like a bitch, what luck that the stalagmite only hit my thigh, and not a vital part of my body._

With my adrenaline running out, I could start to really get a feel for how badly I was hurt. The pain was starting to cause me to breathe heavily, and staring at it wasn't really helping me out mentally. "It's okay, I should be fine. It doesn't hurt that bad," I lied. In truth, I was in a great deal of pain, and it took all of my mental fortitude to make sure my face didn't reveal it. I didn't want to risk scaring my team, especially not now. My plan was to just remove it, get out of the cave, and go get treated at a hospital. "Just… Like a bandaid, right?" I said to no one in particular. _Is this the right course of action? I'm no doctor, but I don't know if I'm supposed to leave it in or not… Well, it's wet though. So… I should take it out, so the wound doesn't get infected… Right?_

I rolled over to my side, much to Feeny and Drake's protest. Venus simply stood near my back, holding onto me. "Alright… Ok, I can do this," I whispered, "It's always worse going in right?" I moved my shaky hand to the base of the stalagmite. I mentally counted in my head before I got to three, then I pulled as hard and as fast as I could.

I wish I could say I had a stoic face, or that I grunted as I pulled it out. I wish I could say I took it like a champ, and played through the pain. I wish I could say that the only thing that could be heard in the cave were my curses. But most of all, I wish I could have said that I at least got the stalagmite out.

None of those happened.

I let out the most blood curdling scream of pain I've ever heard as I attempted to pull it out. The simple act of moving it even slightly caused my entire body to seize up in pain. I could feel warm liquid pour out of the wound and coat my hand and thigh. I only got one or two inches out before Feeny held my arms down to stop me from pulling anymore, and I struggled against her. Drake inspected the wound while Venus started crying again, holding my other arm. "You don't understand," I choked in between sobs, "It's going to get infected. It has to come out."

"Blaziken! Blaziken blaze blaze." She scold me as she got really close to my face. I actually shrunk back a bit as I felt her intimidating stare pierce my soul. "Blaziken," She said again. I closed my eyes as a few more tears flowed out.

"It hurts. It hurts so much," I breathed out shakily. I didn't struggle against Feeny anymore, the feeling of fatigue was wearing on me. There was no beating a fighting type in their natural habitat anyways.

"Flygon. Fly?" Drake asked.

Blaziken shook her head. "Blaze. Blaziken blaziken blaze."

"F-Flaaffy. Flaaff Flaaffy flaa… Flaaffy…" Venus stated before she started to tear up again and hug me.

"D-don't worry. No matter what, you guys are going to make it out of here. I'll make sure to that, or die trying," I assured them. I thought they were talking about how to get out of here, and I couldn't blame them. "We need to get out of here. Feeny, help me up, please," I asked the blaziken.

I attempted to stand up but immediately fell down on my knees. "I don't think I can walk. You guys are just gonna have to go on without me, or stay with me as I crawl." I attempted to chuckle but just found it too painful. Every movement felt like a thousand needles in my body. Feeny rolled her eyes as she gently picked me up, bridal style. I hated being carried like this, but it was oddly comforting right now. Feeny usually only carried me like this when she wanted to tease me and show how much stronger she was than me. I've never been wounded enough to where I actually needed her to carry me. I wrapped my arms around her neck and shoulder, holding on for extra support. "Are you gonna be okay carrying me?" I asked. Feeny just glared at me, as if to say 'How weak do you think I am?' "Right, sorry. Guess we better move out. Go slowly please, every time I move I feel a little closer to death," I joked before noticing Venus' scared reaction. "I'm kidding, kidding! Venus, don't worry! But seriously though, Feeny, please go slow."

Drake grabbed one of the sticks still on fire and used it to light our way as we slowly walked forward. Even though Feeny was trying her hardest to move softly and not bounce me, I still cringed in pain with every step she took. I just resolved to bury my face is her chest and try not to focus on the pain. The cold was starting to get to me, after being soaked to the bone in a cold, damp cave. I shivered, and huddled closer to the fire-type pokemon to keep me warm. I was feeling weaker the longer we were in this cave, which I attributed to the cold.

The torch Drake was holding was running out, and there were no more sticks to be found. Soon, we would be in the pitch black darkness again. This cave was endless it seemed, and staying down here for longer than we needed scared me. Drake made a sharp left down a passageway, and we followed. A thought occurred to me: Would we see any wild pokemon down here? Any of them dangerous? I highly doubted we would be able to fight them off in our state, and they had home advantage. This was their territory, not ours. They knew the layout, and more likely than not, they were better acquainted with their vision in the darkness. We wouldn't last 5 minutes…

My thoughts were interrupted as Drake made another right, looking for a way out. If I wasn't watching where we were going, I would have sworn that we made no progress. The area we were in looked exactly like the first area, albeit with no pool of water. I felt my eyelids get heavy, and decided to let Drake take the lead. "This sucks," I mumbled.

I felt Feeny's movement as we continued to walk. This was terrible. I'm not sure if I lost a lot of blood or not. _I just feel awful all around. How am I supposed to make it to the hospital? Even if we make it out of the cave, we still have to walk a few hours back the way we came. Am I going to be alright?_ Another thought occurred to me. _Wait, I'm supposed to stop the blood flow, right? But I don't have any bandages…_

I opened my eyes once more. I hadn't noticed the new room we entered. The room itself was very big, or at least that's the impression I had from the small torchlight we had. However, the room was barren. There was nothing except boulders and stalactites from what I saw. That must mean we're close, right?

Venus gasped as Drake's light went out. Once more, we were in pitch black darkness again. I'm not even sure who had the best night vision out of my pokemon, but for some reason, I thought it was Drake. He did manage to find us, so it couldn't be too bad, right?

My ears exploded in pain as a sharp loud sound pierced the air. I attempted to cover my ears, and apparently so did Feeny. I yelped as she let me go, causing me to hit the stone floor. "ZUBAAAAT!" Something screamed. A damn zubat must have used supersonic on us. This was what I was afraid of. We wandered into their territory, and now they were fighting back.

I groaned as I sat up. I was still incapacitated, so I wouldn't be able to move around too much. I was at the mercy of my team, and to some extent, the enemies. I prayed they wouldn't come after me.

I saw flashes of fire as Feeny began to use flamethrower on the zubat. As the stream of fire came out, I could see more zubats coming to attack us. Feeny just pissed off the rest of them… Drake flew into the air and began to use dragon claw on the swarm of zubats. Two of them dodged behind Drake, but he saw it coming, and quickly used a dragon tail.

Venus stayed huddled near me. Whether she was scared for me, or for herself I wasn't sure. "Venus," I managed. "You have to help them. Zubats are weak to electricity. Don't worry about me, go! Use electro ball, or thundershock. When they're vulnerable, hit them with a thunderbolt."

Venus was hesitant, but listened to my order nonetheless. She ran off to help Drake and Feeny, who were in the midst of their battle. Drake was still flying around, dodging attacks and throwing what he could whenever he could. He knocked a zubat to the ground, where it struggled to get back up before being roasted by Feeny. It screamed in pain as it writhed on the ground, before stopping all movement.

Venus hit a zubat that wasn't dodging with a thunderbolt, causing it to hit the ground. Sparks of lightning and streams of fire were the only things lighting up the cave, and even then, it was only for seconds at a time. I wanted to help them in someway. Then, I remembered- I was their damn trainer!

"Feeny, use sand attack! Try and stop them from landing any attacks. After that, use sky uppercut!" I shouted. My focused turned to Drake, who was in the middle of the swarm of zubats. "Doing good Drake, keep dodging! Not much you can do since they're flying besides dragon claw and dragon tail. Venus, you're the MVP here, use thunder wave when possible to stop most of them from moving! After that, take them out with electro ball!"

My team did exactly as I said, and I watched as they began to chain their attacks in unison. Venus managed to take out for zubats with one electro ball after paralyzing them.

The ground beneath us rumbled as something jumped out of the ground. Something big… I saw for a moment that a few dugtrios and digletts popped up near my left, before going down again and heading to my team. "Dugtrio's, look out you guys!" I shouted. _There's no way they themselves made that huge rumble. Something else is around._ "Be careful! I think there's something else here," I yelled, but it was quickly drowned out by the sound of a thunderbolt.

A golbat flew down and crashed into my chest. The wind was knocked out of me as I was pushed back a few feet. "Fly!" Drake said apologetically, pointing to himself as the primary cause of the crashing golbat. I quickly scrambled to throw the golbat off of me, hoping it wouldn't start to attack me. The golbat, however, turned around and started to attempt to claw my face. I yelled in pain as I attempted to fight off the bat pokemon.

The golbat quickly bit my arm, drawing blood. Pain exploded in my forearm as I attempted to shake off the pokemon. _I may be down, but I'm not out!_ After realizing it wouldn't leave, I quickly threw a punch at its head as hard as I could. I succeeded in getting it off my arm, but only temporarily dazed it. "GO AWAY," I shouted in a vain attempt of getting the golbat to leave me alone. The ground shook once more, and the golbat quickly retreated back towards the other zubats and golbats.

 _Somethings coming!_ Fear started to envelop me. Something else was around, and not being able to see besides the small flashes of light didn't help to calm me. We needed to leave. At this point, we weren't just trespassing. We were…

 _We're bait!_

The thought quickly left my mind as the rumbling started again. This time, though, I felt the ground open up beneath me. I yelped, thinking I was going to fall through the earth once more. Instead of falling in though, I was thrown through the air. Time seemed to slow down as I flying. I looked around towards where I previously was, and through a single flash of electricity, I saw a cluster of shiny rocks in a straight line, bursting out of the ground where I (at least I presumed) was previously. Through another burst of light from a fire, I saw something that truly terrified me. The rocks… had a face at the end.

 _Steelix!_ I thought before I hit the wall. The thud of hitting the wall was overshadowed by the crack of my skull. I fell to the ground, no longer able to even yell or think properly. I could barely keep my eyes open, and I couldn't lift my head. Their was a ringing noise in my ears, but I could still hear the fighting. I decided to close my eyes, just for a moment.

* * *

"BLAAAAAAAZIKEEEEEN!"

"F-FLAAFFY!"

"Fly!?"

My eyes fluttered open. That was my team. They sounded so far away from me. But they were distressed… Why? Oh… _We were fighting against a group of zubats and golbats… right? I think…_ I don't even remember falling asleep. How long was I out? _I can't… feel anything in my body… Am I… Dying?_

The sound of footsteps grew closer to me. I felt myself being picked up, and forced to look at something. I couldn't quite focus on the person, as it was too dark. Instead, small flashes of light illuminated the area. A small pokemon and a flying pokemon were fighting against a swarm of other pokemon.

The thing holding me pushed itself closer to my face. I would have shrank back if I could've, but I couldn't feel anything really. "Blaziken!?" It asked me. That voice… Wait a minute… "Blaze," It said more sternly.

"Feeny?" I slurred.

"Blaziken," Feeny responded in a reassuring manner.

"I can't… I can't feel anything," I slurred. "I don't know if… I can stay awake. I'm so tired..."

"B-Blaziken…" Feeny's voice cracked. I felt something hit my cheek. Something wet. I wanted to reach up and wipe it off, but I couldn't. My eyes closed involuntarily.

"M-momma…"

* * *

"Oh Arceus… Lucas?" Feeny asked. Silence was her only response. "No…" Feeny bent down to give her trainer a hug. "No, Lucas. Come on, come back. You… Y-You can't leave us like this," Feeny sobbed. Tears fell onto her trainers face. She wanted to stay like that and hold onto her best friend, but a high pitched cry knocked her out of her thoughts.

"Help!" Venus screamed as the steelix began to attack her. A quick glance showed that most of the zubats were gone, or in the process of retreating. The blazikens sadness was quickly replaced with anger. _Murderer! Bastard! I'll kill you!_ She set Lucas' head down softly before she stood up. She could easily see the steelix in the dark, his body almost looking like a target for her. Without another thought, Feeny charged forward, blowing a flamethrower at the steelix's body. The pokemon screamed in pain as it backed away from the flaaffy and blaziken. But Feeny wasn't done, it wasn't going to kill her trainer and get away with it.

The steelix used rock throw in an attempt to get the fire type to back off. It hit Feeny in the arm, and she stumbled down, but almost as soon as she hit the ground, she was back up. Before Feeny could use another attack, the steelix tackled her. The blaziken rolled backwards before skidding to a stop. She jumped back up, this time prepared to dodge another tackle. After sidestepping the attack, she used a sky uppercut. The steelix flew into the air before landing back on the ground.

It shakily stood back up, a sign that it wasn't going to last much longer. Feeny covered her body in flames as she charged forward, hitting the steelix head on. Whatever pain she felt, he was going to feel doubled. It cried in pain as the flames covered it, attempting to get away before falling unconscious. Now that the immediate threat was gone, Feeny let the flames fade away. She could focus on something else now.

With a deep breath, she let out a flamethrower on the steelix's head. Its screams echoed across the cave and it writhed around reflexively. After a few seconds, it's entire body went limp. Feeny stopped, but only for a moment to take a quick breath. Once again, she began to shoot a flamethrower at the steelix, not caring that it had already perished. For all she cared, she hoped he could feel the heat in the afterlife. The steelix's body was beginning to be blackened, and a disgusting smell wafted throughout the cave.

"Feeny," Venus yelled, "Stop it! It's already dead!" She felt Venus' body grab onto her right arm, but she pushed her back. _Leave me alone, Venus._ Instead of blowing more fire onto the dead steelix, she began punch it. Her punches were covered in fire, and she felt pain as her fists made contact with the steel types body.

But the pain felt _good._ For a slight moment, she was about to take her mind off the pain in her heart, and instead focus on the pain in her hands. With each punch, she felt more pain, and soon, her knuckles were bloodied and bruised. She was about to do another big punch, but she felt her hand stop. Reflexively, she looked up to see what it was that stopped her.

Drake was holding her arm back. "Stop," was the only word he said. Feeny felt her arms get shaky as she let them fall limp at her sides.

"I couldn't… I couldn't protect him…" She sobbed. Feeny turned around and fell to her knees. She could see Venus putting her head through Lucas' arm. If she wasn't there when he died, she would have sworn he was just sleeping. Tears covered Venus' face as she attempted to talk to Lucas, hoping he would respond.

"Feeny, I'm sorry. I want to give you time to grieve, but we need to get out of here. If we get attacked again, we might not survive," Drake said softly.

"No… Not without him. I won't leave him down here for them…"

* * *

Darkness. That was all I could see. Vast emptiness. There wasn't even wind. Or air. Light and darkness were nothing here. Actually, there was… something else here. I could feel the presence of another person it felt like.

I looked around, trying to find the person, but once again, all there was was darkness. I tried to move forward, but I couldn't feel my legs. After looking down, I saw nothing. There was nothing there… There was nothing anywhere. _I… I don't have a body!_ I panicked. I didn't have a body… I tried to scream, but nothing came out. I had no mouth… But I had to scream.

I tried to run, to fall, to jump, to do anything… But I wasn't make movement. I wasn't… anything. How much time had passed? What the hell happened earlier? Why can't I remember anything. Where was my body. Why… why was… Why wasn't I a person anymore.

Why wasn't I human?

 _This can't be happening. What the hell happened… This can't be it. I can't be alone in here… I can't…_ I wanted to cry, but there was nothing I could do. I was… Nothing…

"Finally!" I heard a voice. "You guys take forever to get up."

Who the hell was that. Was that… Another person? I wanted to scream for help, but nothing came out. _How… How do I communicate with them?_

"Just like that," The feminine voice responded.

I would have screamed if I could've. They're reading my thoughts!? How? What- How! Is… Is that the grim reaper?

"Uh... What?"

Was it possible that this person was the one who caused me to be here? Did they… Kill me? Was I dead?

"Hey, I didn't do any of that. I did bring you here, however."

Then this must have been hell, or at the least purgatory. This voice was going to talk to me forever… Or it was going to torture me. The voice said I was brought here because of him. So, that means… I was going to have to beg him to take me home.

"I'm a girl, you know, and I can read your mind. I can hear your thoughts. Also, Hell? Purgatory? Your concepts of the afterlife are very strange compared to ours."

 _Afterlife?_ So it was true… I was dead… But how did that girl know I was dead? And how did she know what I was thinking?

"What part of 'I'm a psychic' don't you understand? And yes, you are dead.'

This was too much to handle. I can't even remember the past 24 hours, so how the hell did I die?

"I uh… I indirectly caused your death…"

SHE CAUSED IT!? SHE CAUSED MY DEATH! I died because of someone else! I wanted to punch something, to show my anger, but I couldn't. I wasn't going to let that stop me though. I… refused. I refused to let that voice stop me from living my life.

"Wait, I wanted to apologize-"

I refused to talk to it. My MURDERER wasn't about to sit here, and talk to me. I wouldn't allow it. I was going to ignore this voice.

"Please, just listen,-"

No. I would not. I shook my head, or whatever I thought my head was.

"'Maybe I should go, just for a little."

Her threats would not scare me. I stood my ground. How could I have been so foolish! If somethings talking to you, you shouldn't respond. That's something a crazy person would do. _What do you say to that, voice! Huh!? What about that!?_ Silence was my response. Maybe she did really leave.

 _Good! I'm dead, what do I have to care!_ _I'm fucking dead…_ I… I'm dead. I thought angry thoughts, thoughts about the person who had killed me. I had no idea who it was, but I wanted them to know how angry I was. I thought about what I would do if I had met them in person.

Then… I felt bad. This wasn't me… I wasn't a violent person… And she did apologize… But I was dead. There wasn't anything I could do… Oh no… My team! What about them!? Are they going to be okay!?

Sadness overcame me. I wanted the voice back. I was scared, I wanted to cry. Please… Come back… I'm sorry…

"It's okay, it's okay. I'm still here. You had every right to be angry. But I'm here. I'm going to help you through this!" The voice cooed.

 _I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be that angry. It was just…_

"You don't have to apologize. Faced with the prospect of death, I felt you actually were calmer than others."

 _So you are the grim reaper?_

"I still don't know what that is."

 _Someone who comes to collect the souls of the deceased._

"No, that's not my job. I'm here to take responsibility."

What does that mean? Take responsibility? What did she mean by that?

"I wasn't kidding when I said It was partially my fault you're dead. There was a flash of light in the night, and I crashed into the mountain. You saved 3 of your team members, and the cave collapsed into a deeper pit."

I… I remembered some of that. She was going to have to fill me in to the rest of it, because I couldn't remember most of it. _Can you-_

"I'm psychic, remember? You were on your way to another gym, I can't remember the name of the town though. You stopped for the night, and you woke up because you heard a teddiursa taking your backpack. Stuff happens, yadda yadda, you're running away from 3 ursarings."

 _Wait, you said you caused the crash in the mountain? What were you doing that caused it?_

"I was uh… Fighting someone else."

 _So… You can fly? And read minds?_

"Among other things."

"Darkrai. We uh… We had a disagreement over something."

Darkrai!? She fought Darkrai, THE DARKRAI? What the hell! That's so… Oh man…

"Uh, yeah, I did. I got my point across, though. Thankfully, things seemed to be a lot better now."

 _Does it usually take you a fight to get a point across._

"No! Uh, not usually. But when they're being a big meanie, I usually have to get into a fight."

 _Wow. To take on Darkrai himself? Jeez… Who are you?_

Something pink floated in front of me. Large eyes covered its face, and a long pink tail followed it behind. Short pink ears topped its head, and long legs covered its bottom. The short stubby arms tied it together into something I thought I'd never see.

 _M-Mew? No… No way._

Mew flashed a smile. "Yup. That's me."

She looked… Cute. Which was very weird, considering this pokemon had the ability to destroy anything it wished. Mew was said to have all the DNA of every pokemon in its body, and here I was, not too long ago cursing it. I instinctively shrunk back.

"Hehe, you called me cute," Mew giggled. She seemed to notice my fear. "Why are you so afraid?" Mew asked, cocking her head sideways.

 _I'm sorry for t-the way I acted earlier. P-please… I'm sorry…_

"Um… Okay? I'm not mad. I understand why you acted like that, so I can't blame you. And I'm not that mean! You humans, sheesh. It's always 'oh no a legendary, please don't hurt me, I'm sorry, I'm going to run away now.' It gets a bit annoying at times." Mew shook her head. "Anyways, yes, I'm Mew, oooh scary~~" She gave as much of a scary face as she could, but after holding it for a few seconds, she giggled and did a quick backflip, before going back to floating. "Back to what I was saying before we got sidetracked… I am partially responsible for your death, because yes, I did cause the mountain to cave in at certain parts. But, I didn't kill you. A steelix did."

 _Oh.. That's what hit me._ A quick thought came to me. _Wait, what about my team!? Are they okay at least?_

"Everyone's okay from what I've seen. Some have more bruises than others, but no one's mortally wounded. The three members of your team, above ground just finished digging out the rocks, and have noticed the hole into the earth. They're debating jumping in, or looking for another way. The three pokemon in the cave, however, are taking your death very heavily. They're nearing an exit soon, If I'm not mistaken. And I'm usually not." She laughed.

 _Will you… Take care of them for me? I just want them to be safe._

"Aww, that's so adorable. You care for your team," She said. If I wasn't right there, I would have thought she was mocking me. "But I won't have to, Lucas. You'll be able to do that yourself."

 _How the hell did she know my name?_

"Miiiiiiiiiiind. Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeader. Say it with me now," She joked.

 _Ugh, I forgot. That's besides the point though. You're going to bring me back?_

"Planned on it."

 _How're you going to bring me back to life?_

"I have my ways, Lucas. Don't you worry about that. If I explained it to you, you wouldn't understand, and we'd be stuck here with you asking questions about it."

 _I- Well, fair enough I guess. Am I still going to be the same?_

"Mentally, yes. You'll still have all your memories, and your personality won't change."

 _Mentally? What about my body?_

"I uh… Well… Hmm… I can't save your human body… Your body is too damaged. I'm not Celebi, I can't turn back time."

 _So, I'm going to like… Do a mind transfer? Am I going to take another human's body?_

"It's… complicated. Look, I'm going to be able to save you, but it's going to be a bit different for you. Some compromises have to be made, and so do some changes."

 _I mean… I guess if I'm going to live, I can't complain too much._

"You'll be fine, you've already been through something like this before. It's going to be hard at first, but I'll be watching over you. It might not be apparent, but I promise you I'll be making sure you're okay."

 _You're going to watch over me? Won't that be… annoying?_

"It's my fault partially, so I feel like I owe it to you. Besides, I'm still going to be doing what I normally do, but I'll just drop in occasionally to see how you are," Mew paused. " Just know, that I'm sorry. I would never kill you on purpose."

 _I forgive you. Like you said, indirect murder._

Mew frowned. "I don't remember saying 'murder'," Her voice had an unpleasant tone.

 _I'm just kidding._

"Mhmm…" Mew looked up. "It's time. It was nice talking to you again, Lucas. If I'm not there for you, know that your team will be."

 _It was nice talking to you too. And thank you- Wait, talking to me again? When did we first talk?_

If Mew responded, I didn't hear it. I could feel my body again… I think… I guess, this was me going back? I'm not sure what I felt, but suddenly, I felt… Warm.

I felt myself fall asleep.


	3. Chapter 3: Rebirth

Gently, Feeny put her trainers body on the ground, before she herself collapsed. Her, Venus, and Drake managed to make it out of the cave after around two hours. The trek to the surface was not a good one, to say the least. With the recent death of their trainer, all the pokemon were in no mood to do anything. Everybody was sullen, and in disbelief. After they had made it out of the large open area, they were attacked by three geodudes, and a diglett. They quickly dispatched them, but not before they got a few good hits in. By the end of the fight, Venus was bleeding in her left arm, and Feeny couldn't put too much pressure on her legs. Drake got hit hard in both of his wings, which forced him to walk on the ground, lest he feel too much pain. The wounds to their bodies would heal in a day or two, even less with one of Lucas' potions, but their mental state was another story.

The sun was just slightly past dawn, painting the sky a beautiful orange, with splatters of white clouds adorning the upper atmosphere. Feeny opted to keep looking at the sky, instead of her friends or her now-deceased trainer. If she kept looking up like this, she could have sworn it was like nothing changed.

"That one looks sorta like a pancham, right?" Lucas pointed out.

"Yeah. I could," Feeny paused as she looked to see her trainer still on the ground with his eyes closed, "see that…" Was she going crazy? Did she miss him so much that her mind was playing tricks on her? Or was it the fact that she and him used to do this in the early mornings, so she instinctively thought he would be the first to start a conversation.

A few stray tears came out. _I can't do it… I don't know how I can keep going._ But before she could do anything, she needed to get her friends back to her team. _Are they okay as well? I can't deal with another death… How are we going to tell them?_

Venus' sobs were heard as she fell down to her knees. _Poor girl, she's the youngest here, and she's been through so much today._ Surprisingly, Drake was the one to comfort her. He wrapped his green body around her, and she embraced it. "We're gonna be okay. We'll pull through," Drake whispered, his voice cracking near the end. The blaziken could see the flygon wipe away a few tears of his own. "Lucas wouldn't want us to be sad."

"I-I-I…." Venus stuttered. "I-I wanna g-go home. I w-want Lucas h-here." She sobbed.

Drake wasn't wrong. The human always had a knack for trying to keep an uplifting spirit. He wasn't ever really mad, and usually kept a carefree attitude about his journey. Not even his colorblindness kept him down. Feeny smiled slightly as she remembered the stupid saying he always said. 'I was dealt this hand, and I have to play it' or something along those lines. _You may have been dealt that hand, but that didn't stop you from being the best trainer I've ever seen… I love you Lucas. I hope you knew that._

"What is it humans do with their dead, traditionally? I want to do whatever they did. Do we… Do we bury the body? Is that what we do?" Feeny spoke up. Venus sobbed harder in reply.

"Is now really the best time to ask something like that? We're hurt, I don't think we could do that if we wanted to right now," Drake responded.

Feeny sighed, shaking her head. _I'm so tired, and in so much pain… But I won't rest until he gets a proper burial…_ Feeny let out another sigh as she got ready to stand up. Pain flared in her feet, but she ignored it for now. She would let herself succumb to her wounds and emotions when she was safe to. Without saying another word, she walked out of the area and into a spot with much denser trees. After surveying the area, Feeny found a small spot of land that was on even ground, and in a slightly open area. Feeny knelt down to feel the ground. It was rough, but still soft enough to where she could dig a hole. Without another thought, Feeny began to dig.

Slowly but surely, the hole became ankle to shin deep. _This would be a lot easier if I knew dig. Damn… I think I might need to take a breather already._ Feeny managed to get her hole knee deep, but had to stop there, falling down into a sitting position. "This is…Harder than I thought," She breathed. The blaziken's stomach rumbled, and she remembered she hadn't eaten in a decent amount of time.

"What are you doing?" She heard a familiar voice. Feeny turned around to see that her friend Drake walking towards her, with Venus not far behind. "Are you seriously going to do that now?"

"This is something humans do to their dead, and I intend to give Lucas the proper burial he deserves."

"But… Right now?"

"Do you intend to keep carrying him around everywhere we go? I don't think that would be such a good idea."

"Don't you think we should figure out where to find the rest of our team, or better yet, figure out how to tell them?"

"What do you want to tell them? 'We couldn't protect Lucas and because of that he died', or 'Hey we made it out but our trainer didn't, would you like to see the dead body?' Just tell them exactly like it is. He's-" Feeny choked down a sob, not realizing she started to cry again, "He's… Dead."

Feeny covered her eyes, not wanting to let Venus and Drake see her so vulnerable. However, she felt Venus wrap her arms around her. "I miss him too," was all she said before she put her head on the flaafy's shoulder.

"Feeny, it's not a good idea to dig this right now, especially in our condition. We should just try and find James, Foley, and Julia first. Then, we can figure out our next course of action." Drake stated. After thinking it over, Feeny nodded. _I should have done that in the first place. Lucas always said I was too stubborn, and I finally believe him._

Drake and Venus helped Feeny up, and together they walked the distance back to the entrance of the cave. It wasn't too long, about a 7 minute walk. Feeny wanted to find the best spot for the burial of her best friend, and that happened to be the best spot. She shook her head, unsure why she didn't just listen to her friends. Nothing could be done about it now though, so she just walked to the entrance of the cave. As they neared the cave, she noticed something.

"W-Where's Lucas' body? You moved it?" the blaziken asked.

Venus shook her head. "No, he was right there when we left," She responded. Panic flared up in Feeny's chest. _No!_ She quickly picked up the pace, and ran past the trees, finding nothing where her dead trainer was. The only indication that there was something even there was a small puddle of blood, and paw prints soaked in the blood.

"Oh Arceus, a feral took him!" Feeny shouted. Drake ran up next to her.

"Oh no…" He trailed off. "Feeny, we have to find his body. We can't let anything happen to it!" Feeny nodded in response, and he continued. "Let's follow these paw prints. They don't look like they went too far!"

Drake led the way before Feeny even had a chance to walk forward. He followed the blood covered paw-prints, being careful not to step on the blood himself. Feeny and Venus followed close behind, looking around to see if they could find the body. Nothing was out of the ordinary, not even the grass was bent in a way to suggest someone dragged a human body through the grass.

The bloody paw-prints led to the base of a big tree, but not the biggest in the area. The trail ended at the tree, but nothing was out of the ordinary. Drake looked around, trying to see where they could have hidden the body. Feeny checked the right, and the other trees around it. "I-I'm gonna look over here," Venus stated before checking behind them. Drake nodded before closely looking at the trail.

 _The trail ends here, but…_ Drake was lost in thought. _There's no blood on the tree, so it wasn't something that climbed up. And something with these small paw prints couldn't carry a body… So why does it end here?_ And… _How?_ The flygon inspected the base of the tree. "Could it have gone inside the tree?" He talked to himself.

With that thought in his mind, he put his claws on the tree, feeling the bark. Clearly, he was missing something. He felt around the tree, looking for any sort of clue. The flygon's claws found itself lower down the tree near the base. Disappointed, the flygon pushed his claws at the base of the tree, getting ready to-

 _Creeeak_

The faintest sound of a the wood moving could be heard when Drake touched the base. Without missing a beat, he began to pry the wood around that spot. He was surprised to find the bark held no resistance. So surprised, that he fell backwards, expecting more resistance. He shook his head, and walked back to where he pulled out the fake tree bark. There was a hole in the base.

Drake looked into it, and reached into it. Immediately, he felt cloth. He pulled out the cloth, and along with it pulled out jeans. _These are… Lucas' clothes!_ Drake quickly clawed out whatever he could. Sure enough, they were his trainers clothes. Was he… inside? He reached inside, trying to grab anything else. There was something else in there, a much bigger object.

Reaching inside as far as he could, he grabbed it. Whatever it was had a shape like an oval. Pulling it out, he could see what it was. The oval object was white, with splotches of green adorning the outside.

"An egg!?" Drake said, surprised. He set it down slightly before he looked inside the tree again, only to find nothing. _Lucas' clothes were in here, next to an egg. What the hell is going on?_ "Hey uh, Feeny… You find anything?" The flygon called out to his friend.

"No, and I'm getting kinda scared. Please tell me you found something," Her voice reached his ears.

"I uh… I found Lucas' clothes… And an egg…" Drake responded. He could almost feel the ground shake as Feeny ran back to him right after he finished his sentence.

"Clothes? Did you find anything else?"

"Uh," Drake hesitated as he reached in for something else. "His shoes? That's all though. The clothes are still bloodied though, but I haven't found anything else."

"Well put the egg back! We gotta find his body!" Feeny ordered.

* * *

Venus continued to look around for anything that would show clues as to the whereabouts of her trainers body. There was nothing around her though, at least, nothing out of the ordinary. She checked behind another tree and another bush, but became discouraged every time she found nothing. _Why would a wild pokemon just take a body? It doesn't make sense… That's really mean!_

The sound of a twig being snapped knocked Venus out of her thoughts. "W-who's there," She called out. "Feeny? Drake?" Silence was her only response. _Please no more wild pokemon, I don't think I can take anymore on my own. I'm so tired…_ She asked again whoever was there to show itself, but again, all she heard was silence.

Venus decided it wasn't worth it to stay around, and turned her back to the noise, getting ready to walk away and back to Feeny and Drake. It was clear Lucas wasn't over here, and she was getting really tired, emotionally and physically. She wasn't even sure how she kept herself from crying these last 15 minutes. _Maybe focusing on something is keeping my mind off it? But how long can I keep my mind off it?_

Just as Venus was about to walk away, the bush rustled, and something lept out. Venus turned around to see what it was, but was immediately pushed to the ground. She let out a squeal as she landed on her stomach, unsure who her assailant was. "I finally got you…" Venus heard a male voice growl at her. She started bawling, trying to get out from under him.

"P-Please, let m-me go," Venus sobbed.

"Never!" He laughed maniacally.

"Knock it off, Foley, you're scaring her," Another male voice said.

"Fine, fine," Foley said, before getting off of Venus. After Foley got off her, Venus stood up quickly and looked to where Foley went. She could see the breloom, along with James (who was carrying Lucas' backpack) and coming up on the rear was Julia.

"That wasn't funny, Foley!" Venus barked at Foley before pushing him down. He quickly got up and soon the two were wrestling each other, trying to pin the other down.

"Children, calm down," Julia cooed. Even though she was angry at Foley for scaring her, she was happy to see them. She wiped her eyes, letting a small smile form, before frowning again. Something was at the front of her mind, and she didn't know how to deal with it.

 _They don't know…_

She started crying again, trying to cover her face. She caught a glimpse of James looking at her with a quizzical look, no doubt because he just read her thoughts right there. "Hey, what's wrong? I'm sorry, okay? Please stop crying," Foley pleaded

Venus shook her head. "It's not that."

"What is it? Is everyone okay?" Julia asked as she stood by the flaaffy and nuzzled her.

"It's… Lucas. He's-" She hiccuped, "He's d-d-dead."

* * *

Drake shook his head. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. The paw prints led us here, and Lucas' clothes were here. Something led us here."

"Or, or, and hear me out: Nothing led us here. They took Lucas' clothes, and put them around the egg for warmth while it went out to hunt."

"Then where's his body? And why isn't the shirt ripped?"

"If I knew that, we wouldn't be standing here."

"It's late november. It's too cold to leave an egg alone like that."

"This is someone's child, and you're just going to steal it!?"

"No parent would just leave their child like that, and no wild pokemon is smart enough to make a hole in the tree, keep the bark, and use the bark to hide the hole."

"How do you know?"

"You weren't raised in the wild, I was. I know how these things are. Even though I was young, my parents never let me out of their sight until I was old enough to defend myself."

Feeny was about to reply when she heard the sound of someone near them. Looking over, she noticed her missing allies were coming up. She could see Julia and Venus were crying. Foley looked down, so Feeny couldn't see his face, but he stayed right next to James. The meowstic had a somber expression on his face, but held no other emotion besides that.

"I-Is it true? Is he…" Julia trailed off, not wanting to say the word, for the fear that it might come true.

Feeny and Drake looked at each other. Drake sighed and walked towards Julia. "Yes. We were attacked by wild pokemon in the cave, and a steelix came out from under him, and knocked him into the wall."

Julia dropped to the ground and began crying, burying her head in her forelegs. Foley ran up and tried to comfort her, but he looked just as hurt as her. Still, he managed to keep his emotions in check somehow. _How? he's still young like Venus._ Venus herself started to tear up again, but before she could bawl again, Foley hugged her. The two of them stood there, holding each other and crying into each other's shoulders. They also tried to put Julia in the embrace, but she didn't respond. _They were like brother and sister, those two._

" _What the hell happened down there?"_ James' voice sternly invaded Feeny's head.

 _We were ambushed by wild pokemon. We hardly stood a chance, it was so dark there. Lucas was punctured by a stalagmite in his thigh, so we couldn't just run away. We… I tried my best to protect him. But…_ Feeny shook her head, and wiped away the oncoming tears.

" _Where's Lucas? His body, I mean."_

 _We… We don't know. I left to go dig a hole for the body, because humans do that for their dead, and when we returned, the body was gone. We followed some bloody pawprints, and they lead to this tree. In the tree, there was Lucas' clothes, shoes, and an egg._

" _So we don't know where the body is?"_ Feeny shook her head. " _And what have you guys decided to do? Are you gonna look for the body? What about the egg?"_

 _We haven't decided what to do._

" _Why not ask everyone else?"_

 _It's worth a shot._ Feeny cleared her throat, causing her to get the attention of the other 4 pokemon in the area. "Simply put… I'm not sure what to do next," Feeny began. "I want to keep looking for Lucas' body, but Drake seems to think there's something important with this egg. I am very against it, by the way. It's not our egg."

"No one would just leave their egg alone. And the clothes covering the egg? It's a sign."

"That's the most stupidest thing I've ever heard. Do you think the great Arceus in the sky left us a small sign? Or does it make more sense that a feral took his clothes and to keep the egg warm?"

"You can't put the possibility past it."

"This is the most dumbass thing you've ever-!"

"Please… Just stop fighting…" Julia whispered, finally bringing her head up after 15 minutes of continuous crying. Her eyes were puffy and red, and her voice cracked with emotion. "You two are friends. This isn't the time to be fighting. Lucas wouldn't want us to fight. He'd want us to work together, and make sure we stuck together. We're more than just friends, we're a family. And Lucas would want us to stay together, and figure out what our next move is together. We're still considered trainer pokemon, so we won't be caught as long as we keep the pokeballs safe."

"Where are the pokeballs now?" Drake asked.

"In Lucas' backpack. James is carrying it right now, along with Lucas' badges, wallet, and clothes," Julia explained. "We should compromise. I do want to find Lucas' body, and give it a proper burial. However, the fact that the egg was stuffed in a place with Lucas' clothes leads me to believe that it's important. I don't know how, but that's what I think." Even though Julia was filled with sadness, she still managed to keep her motherly aura about her. "I understand you want to find the body right away, Feeny. But we need to go about this the right way."

Julia paused. "He was our trainer, too, so I know how much you want to give him peace."

Feeny shook her head. "He wasn't just my trainer… He was my… My best friend."

* * *

It was dark, and I couldn't see anything. I felt the edges of the walls holding me in, and before I knew it, I was panicking. I wasn't normally claustrophobic, but I felt like I was going to be crushed to death. _Oh god, oh god. Am I in a horror movie!? I can't see, it's too dark! Am I in a cage?_ I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down.

I realized I couldn't open my eyes at all. I was stuck with them shut, and for some reason, I felt like they were fused together. _Thinking about it, I feel weak all over._ I tried to call for help, but my mouth refused to form words. Instead, I said something along the lines of 'haaa'. _I have to escape!_ I struggled, trying to free myself. However, nothing seemed to be working. I couldn't even tell if I was making any sort of progress.

 _It's no use… I can't escape._ I felt myself get fatigued, unable to struggle anymore. It wasn't comfortable in here, but somehow, I managed to drift off to sleep.

* * *

I woke up, startled. Again, I had a panic attack in the small enclosed space. _NO! I'M STILL HERE!_ I attempted to struggle again, trying to break free. I rocked my body against the walls, attempting to get anything to move. I seemed to move slightly, but still nothing changed. I felt myself getting scared again. _What is this!? Why is this happening to me!?_ I felt tears prick the edges of my eyes. Was this hell? Had I done something to offend someone, and this was my punishment? _I tried to be a good person! Honest!_ I began to try and argue with myself in my head.

"Heee...Haaa…Mmmm," I slurred, trying to call for help. Even the act of speaking guttural sounds tired me out. _This is my personal hell…_ I felt myself crying, trying to figure out what had happened to me. _Where is everyone? What about my-_ My thoughts instantly went to my team. I wasn't sure what happened to them. Were they okay? Actually, now that I thought about it, what happened to me? I couldn't remember too much. All I remembered was… They were hurt. _I can't give up, I need to help them!_

With all my strength, I pushed my arms forward, attempting to break out. I heard a small crack as I pushed, and I pushed even harder. My limbs screamed at me to stop, and I was in so much pain. So much pain, that I felt myself actually crying and hiccuping. But I didn't stop, I couldn't stop. I had to get out of here. If not for me, than for my team.

I pushed, and the crack was louder this time. The pain was almost unbearable, and I yelled as I pushed again, causing sound to come from the outside. I could hear what sounded like wind, and a few other noises that I couldn't immediately recognize. I had to stop and catch my breath, because I nearly passed out.

After a few deep breaths, I pushed with all my might. A large crack filled my ears, as I broke through whatever it was that was holding me in. I immediately fell to the ground, pain exploding in my chest. There was no light hitting my eyelids, so I was either in a cave, or it was night.

"Mmm...Aaaaaa…." I tried to speak again, but nothing but sounds came out. Wind blew through the air and hit me directly, causing me to shiver. I felt like I was freezing to death. "Aaaaa, Ehhh…" I slurred. _Someone please help me!_ I tried to move, but pain exploded all over my body. I wailed, the pain finally causing me to yell out. I cried hard, harder than I ever thought I would. This wasn't an emotional cry, this was a painful cry. I was freezing and in so much pain, that I thought I was going to die right there. I wailed again, hoping someone would help me.

"...Did…hear that?" I heard a feminine voice in between my cries. I tried to move around again, wiggling my limbs, but more pain followed. I was still on my stomach, but somehow I couldn't stand up on my legs. _Come to think of it, I can't feel my fingers or toes either._ The thought went out of my mind immediately as more pain followed, followed by more of my sobbing.

"Oh Arceus, I knew it was going to come out any day now. Where's that damn flygon, I told him to watch it." I heard the voice again, this time closer. "Hey, go grab the blanket, okay? It's freezing out here at this time of night, and they're probably miserable."

I felt something brush up against me, causing me to get startled. "Hey there little…Uh," the feminine voice paused, and I felt it turn me over, causing me cry again. I felt my legs move a bit, and I attempted to kick away, but all I had were feeble shakes of the leg. "Hey little guy," She said, more confident this time, as if she confirmed my gender. _Oh god, she didn't, did she? That's embarrassing._ "Welcome to the world, little one," She cooed. I heard footsteps, and someone ran up next to me. "Can you wrap him up?" The voice asked.

"N-no problem Julia. Come here little guy, I got you," Another feminine voice said. _Wait, Julia?_ They picked me up, and set me down something soft, before wrapping me up. I assumed that whatever they were wrapping me in was a blanket, because of how soft and warm I felt. It didn't even hurt when she picked me up and set me on it. I felt myself getting carried now, and I sniffled, no longer bawling as much, but still unsure of why I couldn't open my eyes, or why my body felt foreign to me. "He's so cute!" I heard.

"Venus, try and keep it down please. He's probably really scared right now. You can set him down here if you want, I'll keep him warm and safe."

"O-okay, if you say so," Venus responded. I felt myself getting placed on something that was warm. I also felt something else wrap around me, keeping me really warm. I went from feeling frozen to being warmed up by a living heater.

"I should be able to keep him warm enough. You can go back to sleep now, Venus. Hard to believe that only two days ago we found your egg little guy," She cooed. Venus said some affirmation before she started walking away. The sound of wings flapped near us, and I felt the wind push into my face. I whimpered, shrinking back into the blanket.

"Woah, he hatched. Cool. You trying to keep him warm by wrapping your tails around him?" A male voice asked.

"Yeah. Little guy was freezing and crying when we first got here. But… I can't help but feel like that's somebody's fault," Julia responded harshly. I had no idea what was going on, but I imagined Julia was giving the other person a glare.

"Y-yeah, uh. About that, I uh-"

"Save it. Drake, I just asked you to look over the egg for a few hours while I went to go get food. What would've happened if no one was there when he came out? He would've frozen to death." _Wait… Julia, Drake, Venus? Are these my pokemon? How come I can understand them?_ I couldn't visually confirm it, but those names couldn't be a coincidence. _Does this mean I'm the first human to be able to talk to pokemon?_ A memory popped into my head, bits and pieces of a conversation. _That's right… Someone said I died, and… that I was going into a new body._

I remembered what the voice said when I was dead ' _Mentally, yes. You'll still have all your memories, and your personality won't change. I can't save your human body… Your body is too damaged.'_ So that must mean… I'm in a new body, right? Another human body? Maybe I was a baby, and that's why they kept calling me little guy. _But they said something about an egg…_

"I'm sorry…" Drake murmured, causing me to snap back to the conversation at hand.

"I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. But that's besides the point. I need you to go to the pokemart, and get a bottle and some pokemon formula."

"Right now? It's like, four in the morning," Drake said quickly.

"Yes. He'll starve if you don't. Take James with you, just in case you need to converse with the human in charge of the store." _That's right, I forgot that pokemon could go buy items for their trainers if they needed to at the pokemart. The store owners even have pokemon with them to help other pokemon in case they need something specific._

"Ughhhhhh, fine. Want me to get a pokeball too, so he can't be caught?"

"You know pokemon can't buy pokeballs. Just take some money from Lucas' wallet. It's in the backpack."

"Fine fine, I'll go get James and we'll leave in a minute. You're lucky I'm feeling better now, or else I wouldn't fly him and I over there," Drake muttered as he walked past us. _This has to be my team, there's no way it isn't._

"Mmmm...Daa…" I tried to speak again.

"That's right, little guy. Drake's a big ol' lazy pokemon," Julia snickered.

"I heard that! Don't spread lies!" Drake's voice rang out from the distance.

I felt myself getting tired again. Pushing my way out of whatever it was that kept me trapped made me very fatigued. I nuzzled against the blanket, and Julia. She was still as warm as ever. "Sleep, little one," Julia addressed. Without hesitation, she began to hum a song, trying to lull me to sleep. I felt myself _getting_ drowsy, and soon, I fell asleep again.


	4. Chapter 4: Changes

Posting late, but my reason is at the bottom. There might be a few mistakes, they'll be corrected later.

* * *

I groaned as I felt myself waking up. Involuntarily, I stretched, but was unable to stretch as far as I normally would. I tried to open my eyes, but couldn't. Attempting to reach up and rub my eyes, I noticed my hands felt… foreign to me. My hands felt like stumps, and I couldn't quite rub the goo out of my eyes to open them.

"Looks like someone's awake," I heard a familiar voice say.

Julia? I remembered last night that she was here talking to me. And so were Venus and Drake. I tried again to rub my eyes, but my arms felt weak.

"Hey there. You must be hungry, huh?" Julia asked. Now that she said it, I came to realize that I was indeed hungry. My stomach gave the slightest rumble as confirmation.

I heard Julia chuckle. "Don't worry, Drake and James should be back soon. It's about noon now, so I'd say within the hour," she continued. I noticed a strange smell I hadn't noticed last night. The smell was strong, but not unpleasant. I couldn't quite place what it smelled like, but part of it smelled like fur. "Why don't you open your eyes, little one?"

Try as I might, I was still unable to. I could have sworn that somehow, I heard Julia frown. "Hmmm, usually kit's open their eyes within a few hours of being born," She said aloud to herself.

Kit? What the hell is a kit?

"Stay here, I'll be right back," She cooed.

I felt myself shift as she carried the blanket I was in and put it on the ground. I forgot I used her as a pillow last night. I heard her walk away, and after a few seconds, all that I heard were the sounds of bird pokemon. No, wait, there's something else. I couldn't tell how far Julia walked, but I heard her talking to someone. After another few seconds, I heard her walking back.

"This is him? And he's a boy?" I heard a female voice I would recognize anywhere.

Feeny!

"He's pretty small."

"Of course he's small, he's a newborn kit. And how else do you think I found out he was boy?"

"That's uh… Hm… Okay then."

"What? He's a baby, Feeny, calm down. It was necessary. Doctors do it all the time in human hospitals." 

"No, I know that…. It's just…still weird to me. Why am I here again?"

"I need you to rub his eyes with the wet rag we brought. He hasn't opened his eyes yet, and I think they may be stuck together." 

"Maybe he doesn't want to open them," Julia started, "maybe he wants to keep them closed so he can't see the world for what it is."

"Feeny," Julia warned. "Not in front of the kit. Negative energy can be picked up by them."

I heard a sigh. "Sorry, sorry. Let's do this so I can go look some more," Feeny responded, quieter than she usually was. I felt myself being picked up. I made a small noise, not liking how rough the person picking me up was.

Did Feeny just pick me up? I have to be a human baby, right? There's nothing else that would make sense.

Memories rushed into my head of a certain pink pokemon talking to me, and telling me that I was going to be reborn. The pokemon was… Mew? More memories flashed into my head, mostly of me and Mew talking. 'I uh… Well… Hmm… I can't save your human body… Your body is too damaged. I'm not Celebi, I can't turn back time.'

So it was true, I was a human baby again. But why did Julia call me a kit? Is that what pokemon say in place of baby? Something warm and wet assaulted my eyes, causing me to yelp in surprise.

"Be gentle, Feeny," Julia said. What I presumed to be a wet rag scrubbed my eyes gently.

If what she said is true, I should be able to see after this, right? Slowly, she went to the other eye, doing a thorough cleaning. I yelped as Feeny scrubbed too hard against my eyes.

"Careful…" I heard Julia instruct.

"I know, I know," Feeny sighed, "It's just that… he's so fragile. I'm not used to dealing with something like this. Usually you or Venus take care of something like this. Hell, sometimes even Foley helps over me. I'm better suited for fighting, not taking care of people."

"Watch the language!" Julia hissed before softening her voice. "I know, but thank you for helping anyways. Venus and Foley are asleep right now, and this was rather important. But you should understand that everyone has their own things they're good at. Just because you don't handle a kit doesn't mean you can't be good at it eventually. The way Lucas described it, apparently i'm the mom of the group just because I focus on everyone myself. I've seen how you've been when Lucas or Venus were down or sad, you were there for them, so you're really good with connecting with people on a emotional level. So don't worry about it, you're doing fine."

Silence filled the air as Feeny still cleaned my eyes. I attempted to try and comfort her myself by wiggling one of my hands free from the blanket, and touched her arm. I couldn't keep it up for too long though, and eventually I dropped my arm back down into the blanket. She seemed to take notice though, and patted my head. "Thanks Julia. Sorry… I'm still not well. I don't think I ever will be."

"...Time heals all wounds, Feeny. I'm feeling the same way, but I'm trying to not show it in front of the kit."

Feeny went back to the first eye, cleaning it some more. At this point the rag wasn't feeling that wet anymore, so instead it just felt like a warm towel. "Have you decided on a name?"

Julia seemed to be taken aback. "A name? For him?" Julia seemed to ponder this question, before sighing. "No, I haven't. It didn't even occur to me. A name…. Hmmm….." Julia trailed off, lost in thought.

My name is Lucas! I don't want another name!

"Maybe I'll just see what everyone else thinks."

"I mean, I'll give you suggestions, but in the end I feel it should be up to you. You're the one going to take care of him, aren't you? I feel it's only right you should name him."

"I… I didn't think of it like that. I'm not too good at names… What do you think of Buddy?."

"You don't have to do it right now, you got time. But Buddy is a nice name. Like I said, you got time, no need to rush into a decision like that," Feeny responded. "There, I think that should be good enough." I wanted to scream. They wanted to give me a name that wasn't my own.

You can't just change my name! Granted, I guess I did do the same with you guys… But wait! You didn't actually have names! And you couldn't have told me that anyways! This is way different!

"Try opening your eyes, little guy," Julia instructed. Instinctively, I opened my eyes one at a time. The first thing I noticed was my vision was blurry. It took a few minutes, but I could start to see shapes and… something else. I first made out Feeny and Julia's faces. They looked at me worriedly, but I was fixated on my own problems. I didn't understand what was happening, but somehow…

...Somehow, I was able to see color.

I blinked my eyes a few times before realizing that I wasn't dreaming. Mew must have also given me the ability to see color before changing me to a human baby. So… that's what red looks like. And green… and what color is Julia? Is she white? Yellow? Gold? This is what the world looks like? It's so… beautiful.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Julia asked nicely. Without even knowing it, I was crying. I never thought I'd be able to see what color looked like in all my life. Well, technically, this is another life, but the point being I never thought I'd see it. Sure, they had those glasses that let you see color, but those just came out, and were so expensive, it would have taken me to the end of my life just to afford them. So, I had given up on that dream.

But… Now that it's here, right in front of me… I hiccuped. I was never this emotional normally, but these last few days broke that streak. After everything that happened, I didn't think something good would come out of this.

"It's okay, it's okay," Julia cooed. Somehow, her attempts to calm me down worked, and I slowly stopped crying.

I put my hands on her, but noticed something wrong. My hands weren't hands. They were...paws!? I wasn't sure what color it was, but it was on the darker side. I retracted my hand quickly. But it wasn't a hand, it was a paw! I pushed some of the blankets off of me to get a better look at the rest of my body, and felt my heart stop. Instead of my human legs or torso, It was replaced with hind legs, and a smaller frame. I was ridiculously tiny! The part that made me freak out the most was at the end, between my legs, was a furry fifth limb. A tail!

I freaked out, attempting to wiggle away and out of the blanket, but Feeny held onto me tight. "What's wrong with him?" She gulped, clearly unnerved by my behavior. I still attempted to wiggle out, and get free. Somehow, I thought if I wiggled enough, I would be able to leave this body, and go back to my human self.

That's what Mew meant when she said I'd be the same mentally! She was never going to turn me back into a human! She turned me into a pokemon! No! No! It wasn't supposed to be like this! I don't want to be a pokemon!

"Something's scared him really badly. Help me to calm him down," Julia ordered.

"How? I've never done something like this before!" Feeny confessed.

"Talk nice to him, tell him everythings fine. Try rocking him back and forth to calm him down."

"Er… There there, you're going to be, uh, fine?" Feeny responded, not sure if she was trying to reassure me or herself. I still struggled to break free, my fear was rising.

"Maaaa. Vaaaaa!" I tried to speak, only to realize at this point I wasn't a human baby, but a pokemon baby. They wouldn't understand me if I tried. I closed my eyes, tears falling from my eyes into my fur. I was scared. Scared and alone, unable to communicate what was going on, and unsure what was going to happen. I was more scared now than I was in the cave, because at least then I could talk to my team. I have no mouth, and I must scream.

"It's okay, Buddy. We're here for you. Hush little eevee, don't say a peep, mama's gonna buy you a brand new mareep-" Julia sang while Feeny rocked me back and forth..

An eevee!? I'm an eevee!? And why are you calling me Buddy! That's not my name! I know Julia was trying to help, but she was making me more scared with her comments. I held my eyes shut, still crying. At this point I was full on sobbing. Being a baby was one thing, but being a pokemon baby, and not being able to communicate? I feel so helpless… I'd give back to ability to see colors if I could be a human again. I wailed some more, Julia song doing the opposite of soothing me.

"This is why I don't want kids," Feeny muttered under her breath.

* * *

I stirred, slowly opening my eyes. What a crazy dream. After taking a few seconds to focus my eyes, I noticed that the trees were a different color than normal. Actually, everything was a different color than the usual black, white, and grey I usually saw. The memories of what happened earlier came back to me. Feeny rubbing my eyes, Me seeing color for the first time, finding out I was a newborn eevee. I was still even wrapped up in the blanket Julia and Feeny put me in. Emotion welled up inside me, but I couldn't cry anymore. I felt like I had no tears left. I must have cried myself asleep…

It hadn't occurred to me how thirsty and hungry I was. My mouth was dry, and my stomach rumbled in protest. I was completely at the mercy of my team. Whenever they fed me, was when I ate. I was no longer an independent being. A quick glance found that Julia was nowhere near me, instead replaced with a pink flaaffy and green breloom. They weren't looking at me, but they were next to me, playing some game they made up on the dirt. I tried crawl out of my blanket cocoon, but I was to weak to break free. I'll never make fun of metapods again.

With no other way to get their attention, I made a small noise. Venus turned around, and Foley followed suit. "Hey, he's awake," Venus said.

"Heyyyyy. Areeeee youuuuuu hungryyyyyy?" Foley asked in long drawn out sentences.

God dammit, this is so humiliating. I'm not a baby dammit! I tried to put on my most angry face, but I guess it looked funny instead, because Foley started to laugh.

"I like him, he makes funny faces. He's going to be a great little brother!"

"Foley, he's just a baby, he probably doesn't know what you just said," Venus reasoned. "But yeah, he hasn't eaten in awhile, so let's go get him his bottle."

"Do you remember where it is? Should we ask Julia?"

"No, she's sleeping. She watches over the eevee all the time, let her sleep. We'll just have to look for it."

"I'll feed him, you guys go play," A third voice came outta nowhere. I easily recognized it as James. Venus and Foley thanked the meowstic as they ran off into the forest, off to play another game of theirs.

Those two always play together. I almost forget that Venus is only a few months younger than Foley. But enough about that, I have my own situation to take care of here! James came into view holding a bottle filled with a weird white liquid.

"I gotcha," He said as he picked me up with one hand.

He led the tip of the bottle to my mouth, but I pulled my head back. "Nnnnn," I started. This is the final straw, I will not eat like that! This is way to embarrassing! James tried again, but I looked the other way.

"Come on little guy, I know you're hungry. You gotta eat to grow up and be a big strong eevee," James persuaded.

No, because I'm not going to be a big strong eevee, I'm going to become human again! This is just temporary, so no, I will not eat your pokemon baby food! I'm not hungry! My stomach, however, betrayed me by rumbling.

"See? I can tell you're starving. So come on, eat."

I let go of my pride, and instead replaced it with humiliation as I began to suck on the top of the bottle. I felt so embarrassed, I closed my eyes so I couldn't see James staring at me. He probably thought he was just feeding another baby, not his previous trainer who became a baby. The formula wasn't great at all, and it just tasted bland, and a little bit like oatmeal. This… sucks... I had to fight off a new wave of tears due to the humiliation and embarrassment of being a newborn. However, a few stray tears escaped, much to my chagrin. James took notice, and simply wiped them away as he continued to feed me.

Isn't there anything I can do? Can't anyone help me? How am I going to communicate with them! My eyes shot open as I realized that James was psychic. Why didn't I think of this sooner! But… How am I supposed to get his attention? If I can get him to open a telepathic link with me, I can tell him it's me! I attempted to tap his arm with my hand, er, paw, but he seemed to not notice. That, or he didn't care too much, and just assumed it was a newborn doing newborn things.

I tried again, but didn't get another response. I could feel the fatigue from having a full stomach start to take me, but I fought it off as much as I could. Damn, I forgot babies get like 18 to 20 hours of sleep. I tried to resist, instead wanting to try and get James to form a telepathic link with me, but he seemed uninterested. It probably had something to do with the firm belief that using any form of psychic abilities on children could mess them up. I wasn't deterred, however, and racked my brain on what possible solutions I could come up with.

Without realizing it, the bottle had been drained. I guess I was hungrier than I thought… James set the bottle on the ground, and carried me over his shoulder.

"Alright, little guy. Just gotta do one more thing, then you should be good to go back to sleep," He stated. James began to move himself up and down and pat my back over his shoulder.

"Nnnnnnn…." I tried desperately to get him to stop. Not this. There were a few things that I wouldn't allow to happen to me in this form, and this was up there on the list. You're not going to burp me or change me. I won't allow that. James took no notice of my protest, even when I began to wiggle around. He wasn't going to stop, so I had to pull out the big guns.

I made myself cry, which wasn't too hard considering the emotional stress I was in. Because of the embarrassment of the day, and the realization I was a pokémon, crying was actually easier than not crying. Only this time, I made it know that I wasn't wanting to be burped, and cried louder than normal. James didn't say anything, but soon I felt him slowing down. "Okay, maybe you don't want to be burped. Shhh… It's okay, no more," He soothed. I allowed myself a small smile, being victorious. I blinked away a few tears, before James wiped them away himself.

Suddenly, I felt myself burp. James looked down and gave a small chuckle.

No! Dammit! I made a small noise, trying to show that I was dissatisfied with the outcome.

"You're a rebellious one, aren't you?" James asked rhetorically, grinning as he looked down at me. I frowned, and simply closed my eyes in response, trying to think of what I could do to.

But… I'm so… tired… I tried to blink away the fatigue, but felt myself losing the fight. Damn… Maybe a small rest would be fine… I gave a small yawn before resting my head on James shoulder. James began humming something, and I felt myself drift away.

* * *

My eyes shot open as I felt the sensation of falling. I could quickly see the blurred vision of Drake, Julia, Foley and Venus before I hit something. Pain exploded all over the back of my body, but mostly in my head. The wind was knocked out of me, and I gasped for air. Tears involuntarily came from my eyes due to the pain, and once I sucked in air, I let out a painful cry that pierced the night sky. I clenched my eyes shut, trying everything I could to relieve the pain.

"Oh my Arceus, Drake! What the hell is wrong with you!" Julia growled. I couldn't see it, but her voice easily showed her anger. She was hardly ever mad, but once you heard her angry voice, it was forever etched into your mind. I felt someone pick me up and put me over their shoulder, but I was too busy crying and cringing in pain to notice who it was.

"I- uh, you didn't- I- I- It was-," Drake stuttered, trying to find the right words. "He shifted in his sleep, and I- I didn't see! He- He- H-He rolled outta my arms, I swear!" Drake attempted to defend himself.

"So why didn't you try to catch him!? My Arceus, you don't just drop a newborn on the ground!"

"Look, I said I was sorry! It was an accident!"

"Shh… There there little guy," Venus soothed.

I'm in so much pain… I hurt so bad… I need some pain medication! Venus gently rubbed where I fell down on as I continued to cry over her shoulder.

"Drake didn't mean it. He didn't mean to drop you. Shh…." Venus removed the blanket around myself and checked my back and head to see if there were any bumps or anything out of the ordinary. I shivered slightly.

"Maybe I should drop you, see how you like it!" Julia roared. I turned around to see Julia take a step towards Drake. The flygon took a step back, fear showing on his face.

"I said I was sorry!"

"You always apologize, but what if he's really hurt! We don't have anything to relieve the pain, we already used our potions!"

Foley stepped forward, standing next to Drake. "Julia, calm down. Drake said he was sorry, and it truthfully was an accident."

"Stay out of this!" She yelled at Foley. The breloom held his arms up and shrank back.

I've never seen her this angry before. Her motherly nature must be going crazy.

She turned her attention back to Drake. "Why can't you pay more attention!" Julia took another step forward, and the Flygon, another step back. I was afraid it was going to get physical, and I hated myself and the fact that I couldn't calm this fight down. I've never seen any of my pokemon fight each other like this. Sure, they had arguments and some disagreements, but never as heated as this. I managed to stop crying, instead replaced by sniffling. Venus still patted my back and held me over her shoulder, so I rested my head on it and watched the events unfold before me. I couldn't do anything, but maybe they'd stop fighting if they saw I stopped crying.

Julia growled, her teeth glistening in the moonlight. Her tails were raised up behind her, and she looked pissed. She took a stance that made her low to the ground, and she looked like she was about to pounce on Drake.

"Stop."

Everyone's head whipped around to see James walking towards them. One of his ears were raised, revealing the eye underneath it. A blue glow surrounded Julia and Drake, and they were both pulled away from each other by James psychic ability. "You're scaring the kit."

I hadn't realized it, but I did instinctively shrink back, and was shaking a bit. My ears were also instinctively pinned back, a feeling I never thought I'd experience. I had never seen Julia like that, and honestly… It did scare me. The fact that she seemed ready to attack one of her team members over something that felt so trivial, at least to me. I mean, it was an accident. Julia took notice, and immediately, she dropped her stance. She walked over to me, and looked down shamefully.

"I'm sorry. You don't have to be scared of me, Buddy. It's okay…" She said quietly, but as nice as possible. I felt myself get calmer, and I stopped trembling. Julia then walked over to Drake, before looking down again. "I'm… sorry. I let my emotions get the better of me. It's been a stressful week, and I guess I just snapped. Now that I realize it, I've been taking it out on you, and I apologize for that." She apologized sincerely.

Drake gave a small nod. "It's okay. But truthfully, you even scared me," He responded, giving a nervous laugh afterwards. "But I was being honest. It was an accident. I didn't mean to do it. And you're right, I need to be more careful, I'm clumsy, and I'm sorry."

They accepted each other's apologies, and Drake made a move to go away. Even though they apologized, he still seemed sad. I made a noise, and reached out towards him. "Hmm? You want Drake to hold you?" Venus asked. I attempted to make a noise of affirmation.

"Uh… You sure about that?" He asked, a quizzical look on his face. I held my arms out again. My instincts told me that it was probably a bad idea, but the human part of me told me he needed this to help out with his emotions.

I can put some of my pride behind to help a friend. As long as he doesn't burp me… Or change me. I shuddered at that last thought. Venus held me out by my armpits to give to Drake. I probably look really stupid like this. Or really cute.

Drake took me from Venus, and held me closely to his body. "Hey there. Sorry for dropping you," He said sheepishly as he tapped me on the nose. I sneezed in response, before shivering again. "Adorable." I looked down at my tail, and gave it a quick swat. It felt weird to have a fifth limb, and I wasn't sure how to control it. Using as much mental fortitude as I could, I attempted to move it slightly. Success was my reward, and it moved slightly from the left to right. I gave a small smile before I shivered.

That wasn't so bad, It's sorta like… second nature? It feels like a third arm, as weird as that is.

"Put the blanket on him, he's freezing," Julia instructed. I sighed mentally as I was picked up from my armpits and Venus wrapped a blanket around me. I tried to ignore the fact that being treated like this was humiliating, but it kept coming back to me and biting me in the ass.

Speaking of ass, I haven't used the bathroom in a while. Should I be concerned? I guess I'll just attribute it not having eaten anything in awhile. I sneezed again, this time a little bit more forcefully as my entire body shook. I sniffled, trying to keep the mucus from coming out of my nose.

"I hope you're not getting sick," Julia said.

You and me both.

"It's getting much colder out here," Julia continued. "We're gonna have to leave soon, find a shelter. It'll be raining soon, and possibly snowing soon."

"Feeny's not gonna like that," Foley responded.

"Like it or not, it's for our sake. It's been 5 days. As much as I hate to admit it, if she hasn't found Lucas' body by now, we have to assume it's gone," She sighed sadly. I perked up at hearing my name, and looked at her. "I still can't believe he's… Dead… It feels like just last week, we were starting our journey, and taking on gym leaders…" I wanted to say 'I'm right here! I'm not gone!', but I knew nothing would come out of it. I'd have to wait until I could talk, which would probably take a long time, or I could get James to establish a telepathic link with me.

"Yeah, you're right… I've been focusing on other things to try and take my mind off it, and so far, it's been helping, but only barely," Venus said.

"I've been trying to keep a good mood up as well. If not for me, than for Buddy. Taking care of him seems to help take my mind off the issue. Besides, I think Lucas would've loved him, so I'm just trying to honor his memory by raising Buddy as best as I can. However… Feeny is definitely taking it the hardest, so it'll be up to us to help her out," Julia finished.

I would've loved myself? I mean, I'm not narcissistic, but I think I would've loved myself…? This is making my head hurt. But that's… really sad to hear about Feeny. I don't want her to feel sad. Ugh! If only I wasn't a useless baby! I really need to find a way to communicate with my team, and let them know that I'm here! And more importantly, to stop treating me like I'm a baby dammit! I noticed James was looking at Julia, and she was looking back at him. They're probably talking telepathically.

"We could go find Celebi, and ask her to take us back in time?" Drake suggested jokingly. At least he was attempted to lighten the mood. They started conversing, and I stopped paying attention to their words, instead focusing on Drake's body. I've never seen this color before, so I wanted to get a good look at it. I looked away, noticing that Foley was also the same color on the lower parts of his body, but with a slightly different shading.

All these colors are amazing. How do people take this for granted?

I looked up at the night sky. The stars twinkled brightly, and the sky was a very dark color. I wouldn't say it was black, but rather a mix of those dark colors. It was like James' fur, only darker. The moon was out as well, but only a crescent moon, not a full one. I felt the back of my head throb slightly, and I winced as Drake accidently brushed his arm against it. Still hurts… Damn…

"We should probably turn in," James said. "If we're gonna leave, we'll want to get up early." I wasn't tired in the slightest, but I knew that somehow, I'd be out like a light.

"What about Feeny? Where is she?" Julia asked.

James shook his head. "Still searching… And grieving. I'll go talk to her. You guys go to bed, It's gonna be a while." Julia nodded, and walked to a tree before promptly lying down. Drake walked over there, put me down, and gave a smirk before he left to find his own sleeping spot. Venus gave me a tiny hug before she went on her own, and Foley gave a small wave before following Venus. A weird sensation overcame the back of my head, and sent a shiver down my spine. I turned to see Julia giving me a small lick before she draped her tails over me, keeping me nice and warm.

"Good night, Buddy."

* * *

Character development chapter, as well as a sorta look into Lucas' mind now that he's a pokemon. Next chapter will have more action, and the story will pick up from there.

Also sorry for the long time between updating. My editor went on a cruise, so I decided to wait for him to get back. But this story is far from done, I'm enjoying writing it so I probably won't stop for a while. While my editor is gone, I've been working on chapter 5, so don't worry, it's coming. I'm shooting for new chapters every 2 weeks at most, but It's not definite. Ya know, life and whatnot. Don't worry though, still planning on updating.


	5. Chapter 5: Change of Scenery

_I'm going to throw up._

My eyes fluttered open as I heard the thought in my head. It wasn't a simple statement; No, it was **telling** me. I barely had a chance to notice it was early morning before I began to thrash around, attempting to throw the blanket off of me. I only managed to get it around my waist, before I pushed two of Julia's nine tails away. I quickly tried to walk, but remembered I couldn't, and fell down on my stomach.

My mouth opened involuntarily as I retched. Somehow, I managed to not get any vomit on Julia's tails, but the same couldn't be said about myself. The contents of my stomach were emptied out, and it mostly landed on my front paws and chest. Nothing much was in my stomach anyways except for the pokemon formula, but that was all liquid, which made it even worse.

The smell of vomit didn't help at all. In fact, it only made things worse, as I continued to vomit. Tears formed in the corner of my eyes due to the burning feeling in my throat. I wasn't crying, but I hated throwing up. When I was younger I would cry as soon as I felt the bile rose up in my throat, but as I grew older I was able to lose my fear of throwing up. That didn't stop me from hating it when it happened though. I felt another wave of nausea come up, and I threw up again.

I threw up a few more times after that, but towards the end it was just dry heaves. My vision and mind felt like they were in a washing machine. Dizziness overtook me, and soon I resigned to leave my head on the ground. _Oh…. Julia's right next to me, but… She must still be sleeping… Ugh…_ I could feel a headache coming on, so I closed my eyes. These symptoms reminded me of when I had the flu 2 years ago. The day after I turned 10, I was really sick, and couldn't eat anything except ice cubes and water for 2 days. Even then, I threw up after eating it, and I was bedridden, doing nothing but sleeping. Even the act of standing up caused me to get vertigo. _Ugh… What a terrible memory to have._

I felt my ears perk up as I heard movement behind me. _Julia must be up. Hopefully, I can get washed up._ I opened my eyes to see a quadruped silhouette standing before me. It was hard to see what pokemon it was in the darkness of night, but I recognized it as a houndoom. Quickly, I stared straight into his eyes, and realized it was a mistake. He gave me a leer, and I was frozen in fear. "Make no noise, kit, or everyone here dies," He whispered threateningly. I made no movement or noise, fear overtaking me. If Julia was to be attacked right now in her sleep, a quick attack to her jugular would kill her.

 _No, no one will get hurt…_

I felt myself being picked up by the scruff of my neck, causing the blanket around me to fall off. It didn't really hurt, but it felt odd. It was not something I liked, and hoped it would not be something that happened commonly. The houndoom slowly walked into the treeline, being quiet as a ghost. Once it cleared a bit of the trees, it broke into a sprint. I felt myself hitting his chest like a necklace, and cringed as he bit down harder, keeping a tighter grip on me. I was getting very dizzy, so I closed my eyes. My nausea never left me, so I tried to focus on something else. After a few minutes of running, the houndoom began to slow down to a trot. Thinking it was safe enough, I opened my eyes, and saw the houndoom walking to the mouth of a cave. "I'm back," The houndoom said, speaking into the dark cave. I yelped as he dropped me on the ground.

Footsteps echoed as another houndoom came into view. "An eevee? A hatchling, nonetheless?" The voice asked. It was easy to tell that it was female, due to how high pitched it was. The female shook her head. "Ew, he smells like vomit. I don't understand, was there really nothing else?"

"It was the safest option. There were others, but if I attacked there was a risk of retaliation. I'm surprised I even found this. After that bright flash and part of the mountain that exploded, most of the other pokemon around us have left."

"Still… An eevee? We should have attacked those trainers pokemon when we saw them. We might have been able to take down a few if we attacked with those ursarings," She stated. My eyes widened as I realized that these houndooms were the same from when I was being attacked by the ursarings. I remembered how they were staying on the side of the fight, waiting for their chance to attack before I told Venus to attack them with her electro ball.

"Actually, it's funny you mention that trainer. His pokemon were there with the eevee, but he was nowhere to be found," The male houndoom responded.

"Hmm… Whatever, that's fine with me. He could be dead for all I care. Damn humans, he probably caused that bright light in the sky in the first place. Because of that, there's no wild pokemon, and now we've resorted to eating baby pokemon." _Eating?_ I began to tremble. _No… No!_

"Helen, it's been four days. This will taste like a banquet. It'll be exactly what we need to regain our strength. After that, we can hunt for something bigger! Something that will last us a few days!" I began to try and crawl away. Hoping that with how preoccupied they were in their conversation, they wouldn't notice me until I was able to hide.

"I guess. Whatever, you're right, Brim. I can just think of this as a snack, just so I can regain my strength," Helen said, smiling. She looked down, noticing I was attempting escape. She simply put a paw on my back, and put pressure on her paw, effectively pinning me down. I let out a grunt as I felt myself being squished. "Where are you going?" She asked smugly.

 _I could fight back! I could… but I feel so awful. I'm afraid if I attempted, I'd end up making myself throw up again._ The thoughts raced in my head, making me unsure of the next course of action. I attempted to squirm away, but it was no use. These houndooms were easily bigger and stronger than me. As a newborn, I was probably less than 3 pounds. There was no way I was gonna get out of here on my own.

"So… cooked or raw?" Helen asked. I froze, stopping any attempt of struggle. No… They couldn't possibly be serious.

 _They're going to…_ I couldn't finish the thought.

"Might as well cook. We have a campfire in the den, we can just use that."

"Fine, but don't burn it this time," Helen said, rolling her eyes.

"Nee! Maa! Veee!"I began to shout. _Holy shit am I really going to be eaten!? They can't be serious! Someone help me! Julia! Feeny! James! Mew! Arceus! ANYONE!_ I felt a quick slap on my head, causing me clench my eyes. Dizziness came shortly thereafter.

"Arceus, will you be quiet," Brim began. "You think I'm happy about this? We need to eat too you know!" He reasoned.

"Brim, he can't understand you. Just get on with it."

Brim nodded and put his head closer to mine, before he quickly reared his head back. "Eugh, you're right. He does smell awful," Brim grunted. He leaned down next to me, Helen still pinning me down. I felt something sharp around my neck, and warm air.

 _That's… his mouth… He's going to bite my neck._ I could feel his warm breath in my fur, and I shook, but not very much due to being pinned down. I felt the pressure of his teeth begin to squeeze around my neck, before he loosened up.

"What are you waiting for?" Helen asked impatiently. Brim casted a small glare at her.

"This ishn't exahctly somthnng I en-joy doing," Brim spoke with his mouth full of my fur. He started to bite down on my neck again. I whimpered, and began to tremble. He bit down harder,and I could feel his teeth start to pierce my skin. I began to cry softly. He loosened up again. "Damn. Now I feel bad."

"That's gross," Helen responded. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I closed my eyes, thinking that if I couldn't see them, they couldn't see me. I prayed to whatever entity was in the sky to protect me. I hoped for some kind of divine intervention, anything. "He pissed himself. Ew." That's what they were talking about. I realized that, yes indeed, there was more liquid between my legs then there was a minute ago. Normally I'd be embarrassed at losing control of my bladder, but I was so scared that embarrassment was something that I couldn't even fathom currently.

"Nnn," I whimpered, tears flowing freely now.

"Ugh, Fine. I'll do it." Helen said. She removed her paw from my back. Immediately, I tried to scramble away, but felt another paw on my back. Helen bent down to place her mouth on my neck.

"Aghhh!" She yelped. The pressure on my back and neck were gone. I opened my eyes to see a red feathery leg near me. I looked up, seeing a familiar blaziken. Feeny had one of her legs raised up, looking like she was preparing to let out a kick. I turned around noticing Helen on the ground, struggling to get back up, and Brimin a defensive position. "What the hell!?" Helen shouted as she stood back up.

"You've made a lot of mistakes. The first mistake was trying to steal my eevee. The second mistake?" She paused, planting her raised foot back on the ground. "Trying to eat my eevee," She snarled. She made a jump forward, and began to do an uppercut. Both the houndooms jumped out of the way, and at the same time, they began to spray fire at her. However, because Feeny was a fire type, it did little to nothing against her. _Feeny has the advantage! Houndoom is weak to fighting!_

She began to focus on one of the hondooms. More specifically, she seemed to focus on Brim. While she was trying to do a kick, Helen came from behind and bit Feeny's left arm. She left out a grunt of pain, and quickly directed her next kick to Helen's side. The houndoom let go of Feeny's arm as she barrelled onto the ground.

I felt myself being picked up by the scruff of my neck, and instinctively began to thrash around. "Uddy, Itsh me!" Julia said, her mouth being full of my fur. I slowly relaxed, letting myself hang.

 _My prayers were answered. Thank you, Arceus! Or Mew!_ I looked around to see the rest of my team gathered behind Julia.

"Feeny! etsh go!" Julia called out. With that, she began to run in the opposite direction. Feeny jumped back, landing near us. Before the Houndooms could attack us, Drake used Sand Tomb, trapping them in a whirlpool of sand. He flew above the trees, but went in the same direction Julia was running.

Their howls echoed across the night, and haunted us until we managed to run far away enough that the sounds were nothing but white noise.

* * *

My team kept running away from the area until they needed to stop for a short break. After all that running though, Julia switched off from carrying me to having Feeny carry me. "My jaws getting sore, and he probably doesn't like that," she reasoned. "It's not safe here, so we need to find somewhere to go. Okay, Feeny?"

Feeny said nothing. Then, she sighed. "You don't have to ask me. I know I'm not going to find his body. It's gone by now… but I'll probably never get over it. I failed the last thing I needed to do for him…"

"Feeny, don't look at it like that. Lucas would have wanted us to take care of Buddy, rather than find his body. Think of it like this: I think if he was here, he'd rather have us doing what we're doing now, than trying to find his body. I'm sure he'd want us to go down this path."

"I… I guess so. I'm just gonna need some time is all."

"Take all the time you need. We're here for you," Julia reassured. Feeny nodded.

"Where are we going?" Foley asked.

"We're going to try and find a shelter." Julia responded.

"We need to find something with water nearby. Buddy's going to need to take a bath. I can smell the vomit and urine on him from here," James said. I looked away, embarrassed by what happened earlier.

 _Stupid! You're 12 years old! You haven't wet the bed for 8 years! How can you do that now! Ugh!_ James sensed my embarrassment, though, and quickly added onto it.

"I'm surprised that's all you did. You're a very brave eevee." I still looked away, feeling discomfort at the wet feeling on my legs. "Let's get moving again."

"Wait, I'm hungry," Foley whined. "Isn't there anything else we can eat?" Drake stood up and looked through my backpack. He shuffled around, looking inside for anything that could be edible. Finally, he shook his head.

"All out of rations. All we have left is some baby formula, and even then we don't have too much left," Drake explained, zipping up the bag. "Unless, you want some baby food? Does Foley want a bottle? Ba-ba? Here comes the ponyta, open wide!" he teased, talking the same way you would to a baby.

"Shut up! I am not a baby anymore!" Foley yelled, his face flushing slightly red. Drake snickered when he saw that he got to him. "I guess we'll just have to pick some berries, right? Or get some new food? If Lucas was here, he'd be able to cook us something really good…" he spoke, trying to change the subject.

"Well, I do remember a few recipes he used. It's not going to be anything amazing, but I can try my hand at it," Feeny added.

"We can do it later, now's not the time. We need to keep moving, it's going to rain," James responded, motioning to the sky. Indeed, the clouds were darkened, and the possibility of rain seemed to jump from 'maybe' to 'oh it's going to happen'. As if to confirm my findings, a drop of rain hit me on the nose. I wiped it away with my paw, giving an annoyed huff as I did so. "Let's get moving. Feeny, cover Buddy in the blanket, we don't want him getting sick."

Feeny nodded, and wrapped me with the brown blanket. She put the blanket over me in such a way that part of the blanket acted as a hood, effectively shielding me from the elements. _But I want to see where we're going!_ I tried to move part of the hood out of the way, but I only managed to move enough for me to see out of one eye. The rain was steadily coming down, hitting my hood. Feeny seemed to pick up the pace, and I could see the road start to get muddy. The trees cleared up slightly, and soon we were going to be in a big open field. As soon as Julia cleared the trees, thunder boomed, almost like a gunshot signaling the end of a race. "You've got to be kidding me. There's not even any cover from the rain. Do we really have to go this way?"

"This is where the path leads. I'm just following it at this point," James responded.

"Ughhhh, Drake, can you fly up and check out which way we should go. I'd prefer not to get drenched in water. Already got soaked saving Lucas from drowning, I'd prefer not to feel that pain again," Feeny pleaded.

"Alright, but I'm not going to be up there long. Don't want to get hit by lightning," Drake said, preparing his wings for flight.

"I can direct the lightning if it comes to that, don't worry," Venus assured. Drake nodded, and flew high into the air. So high, that I couldn't see where he went with the hood over my head. I tried unsuccessfully to move the blanket from my face, but I ended up just covering my face more. I tried again, using my paw to move it out of the way. I was able to see just how dark the sky was for a split second before the blanket covered me again.

"Stay in there, Buddy. I don't want you getting sick," Feeny said. I made an annoyed grunt, and tried to move it, but Feeny moved it to an area where I couldn't move it.

 _My names not Buddy, and I'm already sick! I'm actually surprised I'm able to keep my nausea in check. Jeez, turning into a baby eevee, getting dropped on the ground, throwing up, nearly getting eaten… Things aren't turning out the way they should be. What an awful start._ I could hear Drake's wings coming closer, until they stopped.

"Yeah, so if we follow the path, we're going to go farther away from the forest, and into a field, and more mountains. Not a lot of cover in that direction. However, if we go to the left, across the field, there's another forest in that direction. I think that's the way we should go," Drake explained.

"I… Uh, guess we should go that way? I think? Let's take a vote. Who want's to go to the forest?" Julia asked. I felt Feeny's hand go up, shifting my weight onto her shoulder and clinging to me with one hand. "Unanimous, I guess? Alright, let's go."

* * *

I felt miserable. The blanket was soaked now, seeping water into my fur. I was basically a giant wet sock, except instead of being mildly annoyed, I was incredibly miserable. The wind howled as we ran across the plains, with the rain pelting me through the blanket. I had no idea how long we walked, as the only sound was the rain and wind. "You okay in there, Buddy?" I heard Feeny shout over the pouring rain.

"Maaa. Eeeugh!" I responded as loudly as I could. It didn't seem to matter, however, as my voice was lost to the wind.

"Drake, how much farther!? This rain is freezing!" Feeny shouted.

"Over this hill, and then it'll be in sight!" he responded. "Shouldn't be too much longer!" I tried to wiggle out of the blanket again, this time able to poke my head out. The blanket wasn't doing much to protect me from the elements. That's when I noticed the rest of my team. Julia's fur was drenched, and her tails sagged. Venus' wool was soaked, causing it to cover her eyes and she constantly readjusted the strands out of her face. Feeny seemed more or less the same, but her feathers were all drenched, and they didn't have their usual flare they normally had. Drake flew in the air, the rain running off his scales, but he didn't seem to mind too much. James by far looked the worst. His fur was drenched, and all it stuck to his body, causing him to look abnormally skinny. The only things that still remained upright were his ears, the rest of his fur was soaked and facing downward.

Foley seemed to be enjoying the rain, despite the five other pokemon and one pokemon turned human. He was skipping along everyone, and had a giant grin on his face. _At least one of us is enjoying this._ "You guys look so sad! Why don't you enjoy the rain with me? We hardly get it!" Foley beamed, jumping in a puddle. Some of the water splashed into Julia, who let out an annoyed sigh.

"Sorry, the rest of us aren't grass types. Especially me and Feeny, we're suffering in this rain. Please don't splash us." Julia politely, yet firmly said. Foley nodded, but kept his smile up. I looked down, seeing the ground. Most of the grass was pushed back due to the wind, with some dead grass here and there, and mud. I had no idea what color the dead grass was, and made a mental note to find out what color it was.

"Aiyaaaah!" a scream rang out. My head immediately snapped to the source of the cry. I watched a certain flaaffy falling backwards. Mud splashed all over her back as she hit the ground. "Ugh… This sucks," She huffed. Foley extended a hand out to her, helping her back up to her feet. She thanked the breloom, and they began to walk again. _For once, I'm glad to not be walking. I hate getting dirty._

Our group managed to go over the hill Drake was talking about, and true to his word, the forest was in sight. Granted, it would take another ten minutes of walking just to hit the edge, but at least there was progress. That didn't stop me from trembling due to the soaked blanket, freezing rain, and cold wind. The mud seemed to stop just outside of where the forest started, so there was that to look forward to. "We should've just waited for the rain to stop," Julia sighed.

"Hindsight is 20/20 vision," James grumbled, the first words he'd spoken since we walked across the giant field.

"Oh, I know what we can do!" burst Venus. She hopped in front of Feeny, and by extension, me. She kept walking backwards, but faced us. "Buddy, can you say Venus?" I tilted my head in response. _I can't talk! You know that!_ "Venus. S. Veeeeeee-nuuuuuuussss. C'mon, try it!" she pleaded.

I decided to humor her, and I opened my mouth. "Nn… Ma...Ve….Veeeee."

"Look! He said ve! He's learning!"

"Venus, when kits are born, they learn language differently than human babies. Pokemon learn how to say what they are first. So because Buddy is an eevee, those will be his first words. That's all the humans hear when we speak, is us saying our species. After that, the kits learn how say names, then finally, actual words. The thing is, though me and you can understand each other, we are speaking using only the word of the species we are. So, even though you are hearing this,my mouth only moves in the motion of 'Ninetails'. It has a lot to do with tone, and how they use their words. Humans have been unable to understand how we can understand each other just like their language, and they've been trying to figure it out."

"So, wait, because I'm a flaaffy, whenever I say something, I'm only saying 'flaaffy' even though you guys can understand me completely?"

"Precisely," James added. " It's just a trait pokemon have gained through their generations. You can understand me perfectly, even though a human would just hear us as if we were just saying our species. In a way, they are hearing us unfiltered, untranslated."

 _Wait, that's confusing. So, if I want to learn how to talk, I have to learn a whole new language again, but with the only word in my vocabulary being 'eevee'? That sounds impossible!_ I shook my head, that thought was gonna cause my brain to explode. It was at this point, Feeny noticed I poked my head out of the blanket. She promptly covered my head again.

"Stay in there Buddy, you can't be getting sick," she stated. I made a noise of disapproval as my vision become blocked once more. "Almost there, cmon. We can do this," she said to no one in particular.

"Have we decided where we're going to stay? Another cave?" Foley asked.

"I'd… rather not," Julia replied, her voice pained. "I don't like thinking about another cave collapsing."

"So what does that leave us? Are we gonna stay under a tree?"

"We'll find someplace. Even if we have to dig a tunnel or something to stay dry, we'll do it. As long as we stay together, that's what matters. But if we could find some sort heavy forestry, that'd be good."

"Oh good, we're finally out of the fields. Now the trees can offer some protection," James mumbled.

 _What the hell is wrong with James? I haven't seen him this bothered since I asked him about his past, and he snapped at me. Maybe me getting kidnapped put him in a bad mood? I can't help that I'm useless… Dammit, why am I a pokemon! Ugh! I can't even talk! I am literally, dead weight!_ I let out a dejected sigh. _I'm really not helping myself, mentally, but… I can't stop feeling so useless… Maybe I should've been left dead._ I mentally slapped myself. _Can't go down that road. Keep thinking happy thoughts. Flowers, rockruffs, christmas, cute pokemon, uhhhh food! Yeah! Those thoughts are happy! Keep thinking those, Lucas!_

"What's your problem?" Drake asked. He must have landed on the ground, because he was much closer now than when I last saw him.

"I **hate** getting wet," he huffed. I struggled to move the blanket off of me, so I could see what was going on. I managed to take it off once more, and this time I saw James shaking himself off, trying to get rid of any water on him as he stood underneath a tree. It was a very humorous sight, seeing a cat pokemon shake himself off like a dog. It brought a small smile to my face. My stomach made an audible growl. My smile turned sheepish, as my pokemon turned to look at me.

"Buddy, you're supposed to stay under the covers, so you don't get sick," Feeny sighed. "This is one rebellious kit."

"Achoo!" I sneezed in response. Feeny just sighed again, before mumbling to herself that 'I better not be getting sick.'

Drake walked next to the blaziken before he took off the backpack, and looked inside it. "The bottle and baby formula is soaked. You want to feed him now?" the flygon asked. "Actually, everything in here is soaked. I don't think we'll get much use out of the rest of the stuff in here if we don't dry it off."

Julia shook her head. "No, if we feed him now, he's just more likely to catch a cold. We'll feed him as soon as we get somewhere warmer, and out of this rain. It doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon, so the sooner the better. Let's keep moving," Julia ordered, before taking the lead once more, everyone soon following her.

A cold wind blew into my face, and I buried my face in Feeny's chest. Thank god Feeny was a fire type. I was able to stay warm just by being near her. Still, it didn't help me from being drenched, and being covered in a wet blanket. I sneezed again, before laying my head against Feeny's chest again. I could feel her heartbeat, surprisingly. Was that because i was an eevee, and had bigger ears? Pokemon can pick up sound better than humans, right? I actually noticed that while I was around my team, they smelled differently than when I was human. It was like, they each had their own smell. When I was picked up by Helen and Brim, they smelled completely different than anyone on my team. The smell was its own kind of smell, but part of it was the smell of ash.

 _I wonder if part of that is because they're fire types?_

"You cold, little guy?" Feeny asked. I looked into her eyes and nodded. "Ok, well we'll get you washed up, dried, warm, and fed when we find someplace to stay," she assured me. I just leaned back into her chest again, closing my eyes.

* * *

"Dammit! I can't take it anymore!"

I jumped, waking up at the sound of someone yelling. I noticed it was James who made the sudden outburst, rubbing his head with his paws. "You woke up Buddy!" Julia hissed. The meowstic noticed this, and sheepishly apologized to me. Not that I could respond, anyways. I hadn't even realized I'd fallen asleep.

 _I keep forgetting that baby pokemon get like 18 hours of sleep. I'm pretty sure I'm getting less than that. Is that healthy? Well, it doesn't matter too much. I've been a baby once, so I can survive being without the sleep. Besides, I'm still me, mentally at least. So that already means I don't need as much sleep, right? Right?_

"I'm losing my mind in this rain. Drake, please, for the love of Arceus, please, please, please fly up and see if there's any place we can stay to get out of the rain. Please. Please. I beg of you, please. We've been walking for a few hours now, and I'm starting to shiver. If I'm cold, that means everyone else must be too. Please." James begged. Drake nodded, and began to hover off the ground. A few seconds later, he flew above the treeline, and out of sight.

"I'm cold too, but the rain isn't that bad. Why are you guys complaining?" Foley asked.

"Okay, one: You don't have fur, so you don't have to walk around feeling disgustingly wet. Two: You're a grass type, so the water makes you feel good. You feel great, and Julia and Feeny feel miserable. In a place with lots of heat, they feel great, and you'll feel terrible," James explained, a scowl on his face. "In my last life, I must have been a fire type, because I hate feeling wet."

"Yeesh, sorry. I didn't mean to make you mad," Foley apologized.

"It's not your fault, I'm just really irritable right now. You should enjoy the rain while it lasts. At least one of us is enjoying the rain, so I'm not going to rain on your parade," James replied. That got a few giggles from Venus and James. "I'm surprised Feeny and Julia aren't making more of a fuss than me. They have every right to be irritable."

"I'm keeping my mouth shut, because I don't want to imprint any bad habits onto Buddy," Julia explained.

"I'm holding the pipsqueak, so it wouldn't be wise to do anything. I, however, am feeling awful," Feeny said. I frowned at being called a pipsqueak, and was about to make a noise of disapproval, when Drake came down, landing particularly harder than normal. He tripped, and nearly fell down, but quickly steadied himself.

"You guys, I found a house not too far from here! It looked abandoned, I think we can stay inside!" he exclaimed. The flygon looked very pleased with himself. "Let's go!" He flew himself above the ground, and did a quick twirl before leading the way.

"Thank you Arceus above, a place to stay!" James smiled as he quickly followed his winged friend. Everyone else followed behind, Feeny making sure to stay underneath all the trees she could. Foley however stayed around the group, but ran into the open whenever he could. He skipped alongside everyone, being the only who was genuinely happy with the circumstances. James' smile matched Foley's, but they each had their own reason to smile.

"Lucas loved the rain, right?" Venus suddenly blurted out. The mood quickly changed from slight happiness to somber. "W-what? It's just a question," she quickly added. For a while, no one said anything, and I wondered if I was the only one who heard her. However, Feeny's sigh gave it away, and before long she began to speak.

"Yeah. He liked the rain a lot. He always wanted to see the snow, though he never got a chance to," Feeny responded. "I think he would've liked it the first time. But afterwards, he'd freeze his butt off." Feeny gave a small smile at the thought. "That human was just like a child when he saw something new. And so kind too… I'm gonna miss him."

Silence filled the air, before James spoke up. "Me too, but at least he's with Arceus now. He's one of the only humans I trusted. It's sad to see that number go down by one… But oh man, remember that time when he slipped down that trail, tumbled for about 30 seconds, and got covered head to toe in mud? Then, when we told him to get some new clothes at the next town, he said he couldn't wait that long and jumped into a lake to clean himself?"

"I remember because me and Drake were the ones who had to save him! He acted first before thinking! That was one of his worst traits!" Feeny replied.

"I guess his hatred of getting dirty had temporarily overridden his fear of drowning."

"And his lack of thinking. Or remembering he couldn't swim."

"You're not wrong. He was also too persistent. Kept asking questions. Too curious, wanting to know as much as he could. Pissed me off some days when he kept asking about myself, and I didn't want to talk about it." Julia hissed at him to keep his language in check when around me, and James apologized again.

"Anything else interesting about him?" Foley asked, interested in the conversation.

"He hated sevipers. Don't know why. Even he didn't know why, but he said he disliked snake pokemon, but downright hated sevipers. Oh, and he liked Pizza, and sherbert ice cream. And he tried alcohol once, when the hotel he stayed at left some in the fridge," Julia reminisced. "Feeny and I stayed up all night while he was vomiting and crying, blabbing drunkenly about his life. I remembered when he woke up the next day, Feeny and I were straight up yelling at him for doing something so stupid."

 _Wow. I can't believe they remembered so much of that. I was sorta hoping they forgot that alcohol story. I was curious, so what! I didn't realize my real mother was on my team the entire time, and was a ninetails. Yeesh, wasn't the hangover punishment enough?_

"Yeah, that was a fun night," Feeny responded, rolling her eyes. "He would've loved you little guy. I wish you could've met him."

"We're here!" Drake called out. I looked at where he was, and we were indeed at a house. It was a little cabin in the middle of the woods, with a little clearing around the house. "Let's gooo!" he yelled as he charged into the front door. The door creaked and busted open. The door swung on its hinges, and Drake cleared a path inside.

"Drake! Oh my- what are you- you can't just bust into somebody's house like that! Drake! Drake I am talking to you!" Julia yelled as she ran inside after the flygon.

"Hey is that a tire swing! Cool!" Foley exclaimed as he went behind the house. Venus followed him, and they were out of sight. Feeny and James sighed collectively, as they walked into the cabin. The inside of the cabin was dusty, as if no one had been here in a very long time. There was a king sized bed, a fireplace, a loveseat and a recliner, and a little island near the kitchen. There also was a step ladder that led into a small foyer-like area above the back exit. It was relatively small, so only two small pokemon could stay up there, or one average sized human. There was also a window near it, so someone could look out and see the back yard. Besides that, there was a small desk, a coat rack, and another room in the corner of the house. My money was on the bathroom.

"Look, it's fine, see? No one's here," Drake said.

"That's not the point! This was someone's house!" Julia challenged, breathing a small stream of fire onto the fireplace. There was only a log or two in there, but it would be enough to keep the house warm for a while.

"Ah ah ah, see, the keyword there's 'Was'," Drake joked.

"I don't have time for this, I need to go give Buddy a bath. He's going to get sick if he stays covered in vomit, urine, and wet fur," she dismissed, as she walked to the side room. Feeny followed behind, opened the door for her, and went inside. The existence of the bathroom was confirmed as my eyes fell upon the sink, toilet, and bathtub. I groaned internally at the thought of getting a bath from the girls.

 _Can't Drake give me a bath? He's a guy! I mean, we're like the same gender, so it won't be weird! Right? Wait… wait that might be worse actually. He'll constantly make jokes he thinks I won't understand, but I will understand them! He's going to use the word small about 50 times! Nevermind, let me take a bath by myself! Please! Mew! Mew help me! Mewwwwwwww!_

The sound of running water brought me out of my thoughts and back into the present. "Surprisingly, there's still warm water," Julia noted, before she stepped into the bath. "Alright, you can put him in, we're just gonna the water low for now. It's his first time taking a bath, so he might get scared." Feeny nodded, and dipped me into the water. I yelped, feeling a burning sensation in the foot that dipped into the water. "S-sorry sorry sorry!" Julia apologized profusely. "I forgot you're not a fire type, so you can't handle how warm I had it! Sorry!" She quickly unplugged the tub, let the water out, and plugged it back in, this time putting the water much colder. After fifteen seconds, she nodded at Feeny, and once again I was lowered into the water. I was nervous I was going to get burnt again, but once I touched the water I felt it was much better. Still rather warm, but manageable.

Julia began to use a cup she picked up in the kitchen to fill it with water, and gently pour it on me. I made a noise of disapproval, not liking this childish treatment. "Shhh, it's okay," she cooed. Feeny poured something on my head and body, and began to lather my body, scrubbing deep into my fur. "Is that pokemon shampoo or human?"

"Human. I couldn't find any pokemon ones," Feeny responded. The smell of strawberries filled my nose.

"Hmm… Well, as long as we don't use it all the time, I think we'll be fine." She continued to pour water on me, and cleaned my fur. It was a different feeling, something I wasn't used to. I disliked it. I looked at myself and saw that I was just like James earlier. My fur wasn't puffed up or normal, instead I looked like a skeleton with fur. My tail went from puffy and full of life, to looking like a raticate tail. I shivered a bit, a small draft catching me off guard. Julia once more poured water over me. "Okay, all done. Turn the shower on real quick while you dry him off, please." Julia asked. Feeny nodded, and did just that. She dried me off quickly, while Julia stood in the shower and let the water clean her for a bit, before she turned it off herself.

"Want me to dry you too?" Feeny joked.

"Har de harr harr," Julia responded sarcastically, before shaking herself off. Feeny quickly used the towel as a makeshift shield, blocking me and her from the sprays of water. "Alright, let's get you fed."

As she walked out, Feeny carried me, leaving the towel behind. As soon as we walked out, Foley and Venus ran past us. "Me and Venus are gonna take a bath together, we'll be out soon!" he called as he closed the door behind us.

"Together!? Why?" Feeny asked, a look of horror on her face.

"Relax, they're like brother and sister. Besides, it saves time," James added.

"Let them be, Feeny. Come on, we gotta feed Buddy and put him to sleep," Julia instructed. I groaned, not looking forward to the feeding. However, my stomach protested.

 _This is my life now. Great. I can't wait to eat solid food again. Please, Arceus, let that be soon._


	6. Chapter 6: Cabin Fever

Five days had passed since we found the cabin. Most of the time it was pouring rain, so no one really went outside, except for Foley (who enjoyed the rain) and Drake (to look for food). Together they went out and brought a small amount of berries, but at least it was something to tide everyone over. Julia had to ration my baby formula to make it last, and we were down to our last bag. "I'm gonna have to start using berry juice as a substitute," She mumbled to herself. All the food in the house had been spoiled by the time we got there, so they threw it out. At least the berries could be stored in the fridge now though.

I, however, was getting cabin fever. I wanted desperately to move around, and I think I was going to be able to soon. I was actually able to put weight on my paws, but I couldn't stand up yet. However, I could crawl around on the ground. I looked stupid, sure, but at least I had some form of mobility. However, I couldn't move around too much, thanks to me being bedridden. I had caught a cold in the rain, and I was already sick the day before so it just added on to it. A fever was what plagued me, along with stomach pains and a runny nose. I was still nauseous as well, but not as bad as the day I threw up. Still, I did end up throwing up a few times, but thankfully it wasn't on the furniture.

Being sick as a baby was not something I would wish on my enemies. Being sick made me feel completely awful, more so than if I was a regular human. I couldn't tell if it was because I was a pokemon, or because I was a baby (or maybe a combination of the two), but the sickness seemed to last twice as long and hit twice as hard. Julia at least stayed by my side nearly every minute of the day, making sure I was attempting to recover. She seemed to think it was her fault I was sick, as she kept saying she should've waited for the rain to subside. Normally, I'd attempt to let her know it wasn't her fault, or at least attempt to get her attention to make her feel better, but just the simple act of moving made my muscles ache. So, I mostly laid in bed, covered by a blanket and wrapped with Julia's tails. It was nice, but I felt so warm, no thanks to the fever. She even fed me on the bed, but I didn't eat a lot due to my condition.

The only time I really got to leave the bed was when Julia forced me to go to the bathroom. That was by far, the worst thing that has happened to me so far. We would go outside, and Julia along with one other person (usually James or Venus) would hold me up and help 'go', all the while telling me to 'go potty.' Afterwards, I would get praise, and they would help clean me up. It was demoralizing, embarrassing, and humiliating. Most of all, I felt ashamed that I even needed help, because I could barely do it myself. They didn't seem to mind though; On the contrary, it seemed like something normal for them. I guessed that pokemon were raised like that, and to them it seemed like something ordinary. That was one of the big difference between pokemon and humans. Humans were more reserved and didn't ask for help, whereas pokemon were willing to help out whenever needed, and even jumped at the chance to help. I can definitely say that a human wouldn't have helped another human go to the bathroom, except if they were their own child.

I was bathed more than normal, which was something I wasn't completely used to. As a pokemon trainer, you learned to take a shower whenever you could, because you were always on the road. But having one readily available was not a luxury I, or my team, was used to. Every time I threw up and got some on myself, I would get bathed immediately. At least the water was nice and warm, so I was able to keep warm. I wasn't sure how cold it was outside, but whenever someone opened the door to go outside, I could feel the chilly wind, causing me to retreat deeper into the blankets and Julia's tails. The rain was constantly hitting the roof, making it easy for me to sleep. Rain was always something that helped me fall asleep, and I was glad at least for that. Speaking of sleep, I was constantly asleep, because staying up made me feel the full extent of my sickness.

James walked over to me and felt my head. "His fever's still there. It doesn't look like it's going down," he stated. My eyes were closed, but I felt the familiar shape of a bottle enter my mouth. "Drink the water. It's gonna help," James assured. I did as he instructed, not caring how it felt to be treated like a newborn at the moment. They were taking care of me when I was at my worst, so I let them do whatever they needed to do. Besides, I don't think I could fight back if I wanted to. Thankfully, he didn't pick me up, and let me rest on the bed, although he did move me onto my back.

After I finished drinking the water, I lied on my side again. "He's doesn't look like he's getting any better. We've got human medication, but just pills, and nothing for babies," James started. I opened my eyes again to see him conversing with Julia.

"We can't give him any. I don't think he can swallow it, and I'd rather not have him choke. It's probably also not a good idea to give him human medicine. Shampoo is one thing, but pills? They might have weird side effects. Better safe than sorry," Julia responded.

"You're right, but It's been going on for five days now, and he's not getting better. We might have to have Drake fly out and get some medicine."

"Hey, it's about a day's flight from here. Besides that, I'm not sure I'd be able to find this place again, it's pretty well hidden," Drake added, poking his head out from the foyer. "It's getting cold outside too, and the rain isn't helping. How long until it snows? We're gonna need more firewood."

"And we'll get some more of that later today. That's easily accessible. But we need to decide if we're going to get the medication, or chance it," James finished. He wet a small rag, and brought it onto my head. The cold water helped contrast the heat on my head. I mentally thanked James for putting the wet rag on my head. I noticed movement to my left, and saw Venus walking up to the front of the bed, with Foley right behind her. The odd thing was, they were wearing human clothes, way to oversized for their bodies. If I wasn't feeling so awful, I would've shot them a quizzical look.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Feeny asked, voicing both her and my opinions. Julia hissed for her to keep her language clean, and she simply gave a small nod. She was leaning with one foot up on the wall behind her, and her arms crossed.

"Oh, we were gonna put on a show for Buddy here to try and help him feel better. Maybe it'll make him happier? He's been through a lot since he came into this world, and I just wanted to help make him feel happier," Venus explained.

"Yeah, and I needed an excuse to put on human clothes," Foley added. He was wearing a navy blue shirt, with the collar popped all the way up. Venus was wearing a white t-shirt, with a logo on it that read 'I Love Alola'.

"That's sweet of you two, but right now I think Buddy needs his rest. He's pretty sick, so I don't think he's up for it right now. But, how about when he's feeling better, you play with him, and then you guys can put on your show for him?" Julia said. Venus and Foley both nodded and gave a small 'ok', seeming slightly dejected.

 _That's sweet of them. I remember the time they put on a show for me when I was sick, back in one of the pokemotels. Pretty sure they put on my clothes too. That was before Drake joined our group, so he has yet to experience it. Oh man, just thinking back on the show and how it gave me a good laugh, and brought a smile to my face… That was definitely one of the most fun parts of our journey._

Not wanting to let them know their efforts went unappreciated, I weakly reached out my right paw towards Venus and Foley. I was about to make a small noise, but instead let out a few coughs. It seemed to get the job done though, because Foley and Venus walked right next to me. "You want something, little guy?" Foley asked. Venus grabbed my right paw, and held it in hers. Hers was much bigger than mine, and it made me realize that I was so small. Was I smaller than average eevee? Maybe I was underweight? I coughed again, but was still determined to let them know I was grateful.

"Ee...Vee...E-eevee," I whispered before coughing again. _Alright, that's enough of that, talking equals coughing, got it._ I weakly looked up at Venus. I could swear her eyes were sparkling, and she had a surprised yet happy expression on her face.

"His first words! He spoke! Ahhhh!" Venus cheered. I let a small smile across my face. I managed to start the long road to learning how to speak as a pokemon, so I felt pretty proud of myself.

"Good going little bro! Soon, you'll be able to talk with us, then we can teach you how to fight! It's going to be so fun! Then we can battle! I can't wait to teach you!" Foley exclaimed as he shook me excitedly.

 _Battle? I don't think I'll need to battle, since I'm going to go back to a human, but maybe it would be something cool to learn. Maybe I can learn how to do a shadow ball! That'd be pretty cool. Or like a hyper beam._

"I know you guys are excited, I am too, but let's not overwhelm him, especially when he's under the weather," Julia said. They both nodded, but they still kept their smiles plastered on their face. Even Julia gave a small smile. "Buddy, you should get some rest. You need to rest so you can get better."

Feeny gave a small sigh before she mumbled something, and stepped outside. I wanted to get up and see what she was doing, but Julia put rested her paw on me, pushing me back down. Her paw caused me to feel "No, rest," she commanded. I gave a small whimper of protest, but complied. I closed my eyes, and focused on my breathing, and felt myself drifting off to sleep.

* * *

Julia stepped outside, standing next to the blaziken. The two fire types stood side by side, saying nothing at first. Instead, they focused on the rain, being sheltered from the rain by the overhang of the roof. It wasn't much protection, but at least they weren't wet. If anything, only their feet got wet.

The ninetails broke the silence. "How are you doing?"

Feeny snorted. "Great. My best friend is dead, we're stuck in the middle of nowhere, we're stuck taking care of a hatchling, and no one seems to care," she sneered.

"We do care. _**I**_ care. I told you, I'm just focusing on something else to try and take my mind off it. That happens to be taking care of Buddy."

"Then what about everyone else!? Drake seems to be his same old aloof self, Venus cried a few times, Foley hasn't talked about it, and James doesn't seem to care."

"Feeny, you and I both know it isn't like that. They're all taking their mind off it, trying their best to mask their depression. James doesn't show emotion, but you and I both know Lucas was one of the only humans he trusted. How do you think he feels, to know that one of the only humans he trusted is dead? How do you think I feel, to know that he's dead!? I loved him like one of my own children!" Julia shouted. She took a deep breath and quickly composed herself. "I'm sorry, but you're being selfish. I know you were there from the start of his journey, but I wasn't far behind after you know. I was there when you were a torchic. You seem to think that you're the only one hurting, but that's selfish thinking Feeny. We were all his friends."

"I can't keep doing this!" Feeny sobbed as she dropped to her knees. "I can't keep pretending everything's fine! I feel so empty on the inside… I don't know how to go on…"

The ninetails walked closer to the blaziken, now about eye level. She nuzzled her cheek, and laid her head on her shoulder. "Feeny, listen to me. You can do this. You're strong, you can pull through this. Lucas wouldn't want you to be like this. You know he hated it when any of us were sad, so try and smile, for his sake," Julia spoke softly. The blaziken rubbed away her tears, before taking a shaky breath.

"Okay. Alright, I'll try," she responded. A small smile appeared on her face, but it was easily seen that she was forcing herself.

"You can talk to me anytime you need to. I'll be here for you," Julia said. Feeny nodded, and gave her a quick hug. Julia was surprised, but welcomed it. "You know, a few days ago, Drake came to talk to me about Foley and Venus."

"Oh? What about?"

"He was worried about them, because he saw Foley crying and Venus comforting him. However, she was crying too. Drake wanted me to talk to them and see if they were alright, so I told them they could talk to me or you if they needed to. It's healthy to grieve, you know. I'm surprised they've been holding it together so far. But, one by one the cracks in the dam break."

"When was this?" Feeny asked.

"Few days ago. It was when they went outside to play on the tire swing."

"Oh…" Feeny replied. _So it is true, they are grieving, just in their own way… Now I feel like an ass…_ Feeny took a deep breath, clearing her thoughts and looking outwards to the forest. The rain came off the trees, and landed at the base. Puddles adorned the field, blotting the green grass with splotches of muddy water. "I'm getting tired of these berries. I never realized Lucas' cooking was such a treat. Who knew you could make so many recipes with berries, and make them all different flavors," Feeny started, attempting to change the subject.

"Yeah, I know. We're gonna have to get some more food, or send Drake to buy some from a pokemart."

"How much money do we have left?"

"Not too much. I don't want to send Drake in the rain though, so if we decide to do it, I'd prefer to wait for the rain to stop. Buddy is running out of pokemon formula too, and I really don't want to start him drinking berry juice as a substitute."

"Makes sense. I can try and do something with the berries if you want. I saw Lucas cook a few times, and I think I might be able to recreate some of it by memory."

"That'd be nice." The two stared out at the trees once more, the only sound being the pitter-patter of rain hitting the roof. A breeze blew towards them, causing both of the fire types to shiver slightly. Off in the distance, a brief flash of light flashed across the sky, followed by a thunderous boom. The rain began to pick up, making the sound go from pitter-patter to heavy thunks. They both knew it was almost time to go inside. Soon enough, they would be hit with the torrential rainfall, and neither of them wanted that. With their luck, the rain would be raining sideways, and the wind would be howling. They just couldn't catch a break. It was as if some deity in the sky decided that they were not going to have an easy time at all. The storm looked like it was subsiding over the past few days, but in fact, it was just coming in again for a round two.

"I hate the rain," Feeny stated.

"Me too…" Julia responded.

* * *

I opened my eyes slightly, and immediately regretted it. The headache was back in full force. At this point, it wasn't a headache as much as it was a migraine. I gave a pained whimper, hoping to draw the attention of anyone to help soothe my pain.

"Oh, uh, hey. Julia isn't here right now, she went sniff around for more berries. Looks like it's just you and me right now," Drake said. He came into my view and sat down next to me. "Hard to believe you only hatched a week ago. Already starting to learn how to say what you are too? That's pretty quick. I don't doubt you'll be walking and running in a few weeks."

I was listening to him, but not focusing too much on what he was saying. My head hurt too much, and the pain was nigh unbearable. This was one of the worst sicknesses I've ever had. "Ya know, Julia's more of mother figure than I thought. She's treats you just like her own kit. Did you see how angry she was when I dropped you? Sorry for that, by the way, it truly was an accident. Anyways, I wouldn't be surprised if you started calling her 'Momma'."

 _Momma? This is invoking some weird emotions in me. Sure, Julia's a mother figure, but first of all she's a pokemon and I'm a human. Calling her mom sounds weird and unnatural. Then again, I did hear about humans being raised by pokemon in the wild. Wonder how that must've been like…_

Another wave of force attacked my head. "Eee!" I gasped. I clenched my eyes shut, trying very hard to block the pain. There wasn't much to block though, because the pain was already all over. I let out a small sob of pain, tears forming in my eyes. I mentally scolded myself for letting my emotions get the better of me, but the pain was overbearing my shame.

 _All I do is cry and sleep and eat. I hate myself. I hate being this baby. I hate the fact that I can't be independent at all, and do anything myself. All I do is rely on everybody else and I hate it! This is what it feels like to be trapped. I can't convey anything, I can barely convey my emotions to anyone. No one knows what I'm feeling, or who I really am. My life is over._

"Whoa, what's wrong? Julia will be back in a bit, don't worry!" Drake attempted to cheer me up. "Maybe you're hungry? Wait, I know! You want to be held, don't worry I can do that!" He picked me up and held me close to his scaly chest. He rubbed my back as he held me, shushing me. "Shhh... Don't worry, you'll be better soon. Soon enough, you'll be able to go out and play." He kept me close, stroking my back. Honestly, it did help make me feel a little bit better, but my thoughts kept falling back to my condition. I didn't want to be a pokemon anymore, I wanted to go back to my human self. I was only twelve, soon to be thirteen in a few months, and I was stuck in the body of a baby eevee.

 _I don't know how long I can keep this up. I'm trapped, mentally and physically. I might start going insane soon. This is almost like being in a vegetable-like state, except I have the luxury of being able to wiggle my limbs around. I guess I can also start to starve, like I am right now. Too sick to eat, too hungry to not eat anything. And all I eat is baby food. I miss solid foods. I could go for a pizza right now, or a taco… I need nourishment, man!_

"You're fine, Buddy. Honestly, I'm not sure why Julia decided to name you Buddy. If it was up to me, I would've named you something kickass, like uh… Vex! Or uh… Novak, or Stryax! Just think, those are such cool names. You would've been the coolest pokemon in all of Hoenn."

"Vee?" I questioned, looking at him quizzically.

"Don't you think that's cool? Well, you can always change your name if you want. Buddy is just one of the most popular names, and I think you would've enjoyed one of the more exotic names. I mean c'mon, my trainer named me Drake. He clearly knew which pokemon of his were the coolest!" Drake exclaimed. I smiled a bit at hearing him say this. Drake was always a lively pokemon, and a prankster at heart. He knew how to keep the mood upbeat, and I'm glad he never lost that trait, even with my 'death'. Of course, he was the last one on my team, so there's always the possibility that me dying didn't really affect him that much.

 _Nah, Drake's too nice. He would've definitely felt something for my passing. We got along really well, and I considered him one of my close friends. Hell, everyone on my team was like a family to me. And judging by how they're still together, they seemed to think the same thing. I miss being able to talk to them…_

The door opened, and I winced at the sound. I was reminded of my migraine, and the pain came back, doubled. A soaking Julia came into the cabin, followed by Feeny and Venus. James and Foley followed behind, carrying a copious amounts of berries in their arms.

"Oh, he's up. I suppose it's about time to feed him. Drake, will you do the honors since you're always carrying him?" Julia asked. Draked nodded and walked towards the kitchen with me still in his arms. Without a thought, he absentmindedly opened a cupboard, and reached inside. He pulled out a small bag of powder, the label on the front being 'Poke-formula'. He unzipped the top, and walked to the dish drying rack, and grabbed a bottle. It looked like it was recently cleaned, which made me feel a bit more relaxed.

 _This was more likely than not Julia's work, or maybe James'. I'm surprised honestly, I didn't think they would've cleaned it out. How very responsible and thoughtful of them. How do wild pokemon get their formula anyways? From their mothers right? I…. I'm gonna stop this train of thought._

Drake poured some powder into the bottle. Then, he turned the faucet on, and let it run till the water was warm. He tested it with his claws, and when he felt it was the correct temperature, he put the water into the bottle. When it was filled up three-fourths of the way, he turned the faucet off, and grabbed a spoon from a drawer. I was going to question how they knew where these all were, but figured it had something to do with being here five days. By now they had probably discovered all the secrets to this house. The flygon quickly stirred the spoon in the bottle, turning the powdery water into a whitish liquid. Finished, he put the spoon in the sink, screwed the cap back on, and forced the bottle into my mouth.

By now I had become accustomed to letting my team feed me. It, however, didn't stop me from disliking it or feeling shame over it. But whatever, I was hungry at this point, so I drank the liquid. I wasn't sure how long it was gonna be until I could eat solid food, but it was one of the things I was looking forward to the most. Hopefully, not long. Either I became human again, and could eat food as I pleased, or I couldn't become human right away, and let my teeth develop enough to actually chew. The first option would have been the optimal one.

I had a lot of time to think to myself while Drake and Julia conversed with each other. How long was I reasonably going to be stuck in this pokemon form? Legendaries were very rare, so the odds of finding one were ridiculously low. But, Mew did say she was going to be watching over me. Maybe she would be able to help me. But if she couldn't, what then? Was I stuck living the life of a newborn pokemon?

I pushed the thoughts away. No, I had to stay positive and not think that. After finishing half the bottle, I couldn't eat anymore, for fear of throwing up. My headache was also killing me still. "Here, we'll put you down for another nap. The more you sleep, the better your body will recover," Drake said. I closed my eyes, did as he said, and hoped for better days.

* * *

 **Ok sorry for the short chapter, and whatnot. Wanted to get one out for christmas, and also I gotta let everyone know a few things on why this one took a bit longer.**

 **1\. I got robbed at work when I was writing this, so I (understandably, hopefully) wasn't too much in the mood to write for a while. (I'm not joking, I'm being legitimately serious) However, it passed, and I'm back in the mood to write, but that brings me to my second point.**

 **2\. I just turned 21 a few days ago, so I've been hanging out with some friends and havent been able to write. Which actually goes hand and hand with my third reason.**

 **3\. I'm in NY for 2 weeks, chilling with some close friends, so I feel the need to spend as much time with them as possible before I leave.**

 **I'm just saying that don't expect the new chapter for 2-3 weeks, since I leave back to where I live on the 3rd of January. Do note that the next chapter will move the plot forward again, since I've noticed I haven't been moving it too far forward.**

 **(Also yes I really did get robbed) Reviews would really help me figure out if the story is working well or not. Let me know, whether its constructive criticism or suggestions, anything would help.**

 **Merry christmas all! And a happy new years.**


	7. Chapter 7: A Message

After another 3 days, I was finally able to leave the cabin. My sickness had all but left me, leaving me with a small sniffle, runny nose, and slight cough. Venus carried me out, and for once the sun was shining. There were still clouds outside though, and they threatened to rain again, but for the moment the outside was relatively safe from raining liquid. I shakily stood up on my legs and took a shaky step forward once Venus put me down. She held me up as I walked, being my support.

I had stood up yesterday, and was able to take a few steps before I fell down. It was very awkward becoming a quadruped, and not something I could easily conform to. But, it was my only method of movement at the moment, so I needed to learn how to walk. I could barely get a few steps in before I would fall, and someone would catch me. Not to mention, the weight of holding myself up was something I wasn't used to. I was carried ever since I had been brought into this form, so I had no leg muscles.

 _Maybe I could do some squats? Or kegel exercises? That's on the legs somewhere, right? I really don't know too much about biology… At least taking a few steps each day would be able to give my legs exercise. Better something than nothing at least, right?_

"Good job, Buddy! You'll be walking perfectly fine in no time!" Venus encouraged. I didn't give any response to her encouragement, instead focusing on trying to not get my legs to shake while standing. "Okay, let's walk to the tree with the tire swing just up the hill. I'm gonna let you walk on your own, and If you need help, I'll help you, okay?" She said. I gave a very slight nod, and if she wasn't paying close attention she would have missed it.

 _Oh boy, an incline. Way to start me off rough._ I focused, and took a shaky breath. I slowly attempted to make my way forward. The hill wasn't that big. Actually, it was more like just a slight incline, but looking at it with how small and fragile I was, it might as well have been Twist Mountain. I could see the tree and the tire swing, but there was no way I was going to make it up there. Even if I did somehow make it to where the tree was, I don't think I could've jumped up and touched the tire if I tried. _I'm a small fry._

My eyes closed as I began to think about moving correctly. _One foot in front of the other... Right paw, then left paw, then right back paw, then back left paw._ I began to move my paws in the motions my mind was telling me. I nearly did a faceplant, but Venus was able to catch me and steady me out. _Wait, that isn't right. It doesn't feel right at all. Is it Right paw, left back paw, left paw, right back paw?_ I tried my new line of thinking, and instead of walking I did… something. I wasn't sure what I'd call it, but something along the lines of dancing wouldn't have been far off.

"Buddy, you're doing it wrong. Okay, when I was a mareep, one of my sisters showed me this little trick to learn how to walk. Here, stay right there, and let me start it off right," She instructed. Before I could even comprehend what she was talking about, she started to tap her foot. To what, I wasn't certain, but it had a beat of some kind.

Venus began to sing to the beat her foot was making (which had now increased in speed).

" _Right, right, left, left  
Left, left, right, right  
Right, right, left, left  
Left, left, right, right."_

Venus started to clap along to her singing, making the beat a bit catchier and making it sound a lot more like an actual song.

" _Back right, front right_

 _Back left, front left_

 _Back right, front right_

 _Back left, front left."_

The flaaffy continued singing, bobbing her head to the sound of her claps and taps. She obviously knew what kind of song was playing in her head, but for me, I could only guess what it sounded like. Nonetheless, she began to move on to the next verse.

" _right rear, right front,_

 _left rear, left front_

 _right rear, right front,_

 _left rear, left front_

 _Repeat!"_

Venus finished singing her song, and gave a quick spin and a bow. "Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all, uh… Well as long as Julia says we're staying here!" She exclaimed to an imaginary crowd. _At least one of us is having fun with this…_

"So, I hope that song helped you, because it helped me when I was learning how to walk. There's no song for when I became a flaaffy, though. I could walk pretty well on two feet as soon as I evolved. I wonder why that is…" She trailed off. Venus quickly snapped back to attention. "Okay, remember the song, and it should help you start walking correctly. You probably won't be able to walk too long, because your muscles aren't used to it. Just practice walking and it'll all come to you eventually. But remember the song!"

I internally rolled my eyes, but remembered that she thought I was a newborn, so the advice she was giving me wasn't demeaning; At least not on purpose. _Okay, just remember the song. Start the beat in your head, and go along with what she said._ The first verse wasn't clicking in my head, so I went to the second verse. _Back right, front right, back left, front left._ I followed as instructed, and used my limbs to go along with it. Back right foot first, then front right, then vice versa. I could feel myself moving, but it did not feel natural at all. Was this truly how I was going to have to move around? I tripped over my own legs, and felt myself fall to the ground. Sadly, Venus wasn't quick enough to catch me and I hit my cheek into a mud patch.

"Oh no, are you alright?" She questioned as she picked me up and held me in her chest. She smelled like cotton, something that I hadn't noticed as a human. I simply wiped the mud off my cheek, and tried to put my feet back on the ground. "You're a trooper, aren't cha? Alright, I'll put you back down. This time, I'll be quicker, and won't let you fall," She promised.

Her song was stuck in my head, and for once I was thankful to have something stuck in my head. I took another shaky step forward, listening to the lyrics in my head. They instructed me with their lyrics, and I listened. I, quite literally, let the music take over my body. Soon, I was able to make my way forward. Every step was still incredibly shaky, and I nearly fell over twice, but somehow I was able to actually walk.

Venus started singing the lyrics again, staying close to me and walking with me at my pace. She made sure I wasn't going to fall, but I was damned if I was going to eat dirt again. I just about made it up the hill, when I felt my legs give out. Venus caught me, and slowly set me down on the ground. "Tired? I would be too, if I was learning to walk and went up a hill," She commented.

I looked up with droopy eyes, exhaustion masking my face. She wasn't looking in my direction, instead looking at the tire swing. "I wonder if you could even get up on the tire swing?" She continued. "Maybe only if someone was holding onto you. Yeah, probably not a good idea to put a pokemon with no arms on the tire swing. Oh well, maybe next time we can go on, I'll hold onto you and we can make Foley push us!"

My ears perked up as I heard another voice. "Venus! Can I get you to help me with something!" Drake called. Venus whipped her head around into the cabins direction.

"Coming! Stay right here, Buddy," Venus ordered. I let out a huff as she ran back into the house. I stayed there, content with letting myself catch my breath. What was so important that Drake needed her to go back to the house? Well, at least I wasn't getting babied as much with Venus. When it was Feeny, she treated me like I couldn't do anything for myself. And with Julia? I couldn't leave her site for more than 5 seconds before she came to check on me, making sure I wasn't destroying something. A few more minutes passed, and Venus still wasn't coming out. _What is taking that pokemon so long?_

I heard a bush ruffle behind me. I whipped my head around, unsure of what it was that was near me. I gulped, hoping it wasn't a predator. There was only one bush on top of the hill, and of course it was the one with a pokemon in it. _Just my luck._ A head popped out, and I let out a startled gasp.

"Hi," the head said. The pokemon stepped out of the bush to reveal itself as a shinx. "My names Sparx! Wanna hang out?" he asked.

 _What the hell? Who just sneaks up on someone like that? And then immediately asked them if they want to hang out!?_ I eyed the shinx, who cocked his head as I looked at him. He smiled in response, but said nothing else. _He's gotta be young. No one just does that at a reasonable age. Or… Maybe it's just a pokemon thing? Shoot, he's looking for an answer._

"E-eevee?" I said. I wanted to say 'What are you doing out here' but I was hoping to be able to get my point across. It wasn't like I could say much at the moment anyways. _Speaking of speaking, how the hell am I supposed to talk? All I can say is eevee, and nothing else. Gonna have to find a way to start talking normally. Maybe Mew can help?_

"Oh, you're a hatchling! I just started to talk not too long ago myself! Don't worry, I'll help you learn! Let me show you around! Come on," Sparx encouraged. He helped me get up, and ushered me alongside him. He noticed I was struggling with walking, and stood closer to me. "Lean on me if you need to. I know how hard it is to learn how to walk on your own."

 _Personal space much? Still, at least he's friendly and not something that could easily crush me. Like a garchomp. Phew, thank god it wasn't a garchomp. Still, I'd rather take a garchomp over a seviper._

"So, where are your mom and dad? Are they around? Maybe you're just walking around on your own, learning?" He paused. Then, his voice took a more somber tone. "Or… Maybe you're an orphan? Just know, there are humans around here, so if you don't want to get caught, hide. They're pretty friendly most of the time though, so you shouldn't have to worry."

"Ah, what am I thinking though. You can't tell me where your mom and dad are anyways. But if you need a place to stay, my mom and dad would probably let you come over for a little bit. They're really nice! They're big luxrays, so if you needed protection, they could do that too! And my sister is a luxio, and she's a lot of fun to hang out with, so you'd never get bored! Am I talking too much? My parents say I talk too much, but I can't help it! I'm so excited to explore and have fun and meet friends! Like, I met you today! So why shouldn't I be excited? Besides, I think…"

I started to drown out the words of the shinx. Some things he said made me think. First, there are humans nearby, so I should be careful. I wouldn't want to be caught in a pokeball, that would make turning back into a human much more problematic. Second, he offered me to live with him if I needed to. _I guess there's no hospitality like pokemon hospitality._ He was incredibly friendly, which took me off guard at first, but I'm glad he's nice. I'd rather deal with a talkative friendly pokemon, than a quiet but hostile pokemon.

We stopped as Sparx used his front paw to point at a tree that split into two main branches. "This is the Y tree. We call it that because it looks like the human letter Y. I haven't seen the letter myself, but that's what my dad said, and he's smart so he's probably right. Anyways, the tree is sorta the point where we separate the open area and the foresty areas. Besides that, there's the cabin and the tire swing tree, which you were right next to."

"Dad said humans used to live in the cabin a few years ago, but they left in a hurry. He said bad people were after them," Sparx explained. "I wasn't sure what he meant, but he said to just be careful around humans. They're friendly most of the time, but I've also seen them throw these things at pokemon, and capture them in it. They almost caught my sister one time, but she managed to escape! She's so cool!" Sparx continued. He then went on to talk about his big sister, and how she was really fast.

 _Okay, so he's the 'I look up to my family' kind of person. That means he's also one of those people who say 'My dad can beat up your dad.' Well, good thing I don't have a dad then. Wait, does that mean I win?_

I felt my legs give out, and I fell down to the ground. "Tired? But there's still a lot more we can see! Oh well, we can take a break for now," the shinx said, coming to a rest right next to me. I laid my head down on the ground, and closed my eyes. I wasn't going to sleep, but rather just resting. _That's one of the worst things about this body, I'm always tired. Being a kid again sucks._

"I want to go out and see the rest of the world! That's my dream! I want to see a legendary pokemon! I want to be one of the few people to see them, and then, then, then I'm going to talk to one! Yeah! That's what I want to do," Sparx explained. "But, my mom wants me to stay nearby, and leave a peaceful life with them. But staying in the same forest for all your life is soooo boring! At least my dad sort of understands. He said it doesn't matter what I do, as long as I'm happy."

"But he keeps telling me to be careful around Humans. But why doesn't he like humans that much? At first I thought it was because he was afraid of getting caught, but he said that wasn't the reason. He just kept saying they keep trying to change pokemon around here, and not in a good way. I don't understand what he means though."

 _This shinx is putting me to sleep. I didn't know all children were like this. It's not even a pokemon thing at this point, it's just the way kids act. I hope I wasn't this annoying. Oh who am I kidding, I'm still technically a kid. How does my team put up with me?_

* * *

 _Huh? Why is it dark?_

I looked around, just to see the forest I was in, but… at night? There was no moon out, giving the area surrounding me an ominous look. It was almost like the forest was alive, filled with evil spirits. I was trespassing onto their ground, and they wanted revenge.

" _Be calm. I'm here to deliver a message."_

The sudden booming voice caused me to jump up. I quickly looked around for the source of the voice. It was too dark to see anything, but in the corner of my eye, I could see something moving in the dark. I slowly backed away from the shadowy assailant. Whatever it was, it was dark and floating a few feet off the ground. I was able to actually feel my legs, and they felt strengthened, almost like my human legs. I turned tail and attempted to run away, but fell to the ground. I still wasn't used to running because I didn't know how.

My stomach dropped as I felt myself being picked up by an unseen force. "Somebody help me! Please! Anyone!" I yelled. Realistically though, it came out as "Vee! Eeevee Eee!" The force holding me turned me around, causing me to face the opposite direction. There, was a shadowy figure, holding me up with one of his claws. I couldn't see his mouth, but his blue eyes pierced into my soul. He struck fear into my heart, and I involuntarily started to shake. This thing looked like pure horror, and I was scared beyond belief. I tried to scream, but found that my mouth had disappeared. I panicked, and starting to flail around, but the force had be firmly in his grasp.

 _Wait wait wait._ My mind was racing, but I happened to recall what happened before I got here. _I fell asleep next to that shinx, r-right? What what his name? Doesn't matter, that means this can't be real. I'm in a dream, I'm in a dream. So this thing can't hurt me. R-right?_

The thing cocked his head, and looked at me. Even though I imagined this was a dream, it was still terrifying to be held by this thing. The area surrounding me was getting darker slightly, but it was still noticeable. The shadowy figure slowly put me down on the ground, and this time I didn't attempt to run away. Whether that was because of fear, or the guessing that it was a dream, I wasn't sure.

The shadowy figure looked around. " _The darkness. It's representing your feelings of desperation, depression, or insecurity. I do not know you well enough to distinguish which,"_ the voice said. " _You are alone. This indicates feelings of rejection. You are feeling like no one is understanding you? That cannot be too far from the truth, with everything that is going on…"_

" _This is truly your nightmare? Being alone, and in the dark? I must admit, I was going to assume something more along the lines of death or disappearing. Everything that has happened, and your fears are more reasonable than I've seen others. You are holding together mentally quite well."_ The shadowy figure crouched down and got close to my face. " _Your mouth has disappeared. You really have fears about communication."_

" _I actually have news about that. You see, Mew sent me here to let you know that she plans on erasing your memories."_ My eyes widened, and I shook my head. No way was I about to let that legendary erase my memories! Why would she even do that!? Before I could even think about it, the shadowy figure continued. " _It is not something malicious, I assure you. She's busy at the moment, but she should be here in a day or two. Back to what I was speaking of, she plans on erasing your memories temporarily. The reason she wants to do this is because she's noticed you cannot speak, and for your age you should have learned a few words."_

I attempted to play charades with the figure. I tried to do whatever I could to communicate with him. The figure made a sound which I assumed was a laugh. " _This conversation is very one-sided. This is still a dream- well, a nightmare to be exact- so you can attempt to speak using your mind. I don't know how you'll do it because everyone does it differently, but try it."_

The advice he gave me wasn't very helpful, but I decided to try it. _Okay, so use my mind? I uh…_ I began to focus on the words in my mind, and try to formulate on a way to communicate.

" _Your age? I know it isn't actually the same as your body, but for your bodies age, you should have learned how to speak a few words. Speaking a few words before you begin to learn walking is how pokemon do it. So in that instance, you are different."_

I looked up to see floating words covered in white font. The words 'What do you mean my age?' hung there for a few more seconds before they dissipated. I was surprised I able to actually communicate using my mind, but the shadowy figure was right, it was a dream, so I should have been able to manipulate a few things. For some reason though, I wasn't able to make the darkness lift.

"Why does she want to erase my memories?" The words appeared above my head.

" _You have learned to talk in the human tongue. It is clouding the way you are supposed to learn how to talk as a pokemon. You may not know this, but pokemon speak only using their species. Through that, though, they are able to communicate a wide array of words. Mew plans on erasing your memories temporarily, so you can learn easier."_

"But I don't want that. I want to keep my memories, I can learn to speak on my own," I pleaded. "Please, tell her I don't want to do this."

" _It is not up to me, she will be there to talk to with you on your own later. You can talk to her then. If you make progress, she might change her mind. In reality, she's just doing this to help you out better."_

"And why are you telling me this? Why couldn't she come."

The shadowy figure grumbled. " _She and I are having our differences. With that being said, she came and apologized to me not to long ago, and we are trying to stay on good terms. I decided it might play into her favor if I do this. Besides, I am also partially responsible for the death of your human body."_

 _Wait, how could he be responsible for my death? It was Mew, right? And that was because she was fighting with another legendary. Unless…_ My eyes widened. "Wait, that means you are-"

" _Yes, I am Darkrai. Me and her had a tremendous fight, and one which caused a decent amount of destruction."_

"W-what were you two fighting about!?"

" _That is none of your concern. Even if I was to tell you about it, we wouldn't have enough time. You are going to wake up any moment. I apologize for the nightmare, it is something I cannot help when I enter dreams,"_ Darkrai apologized. " _One last thing, you should be careful around the humans in that area. I do not know what it is they do, but it is dangerous for you and your allies. Stay safe, and stay out of sight."_

* * *

 _What do you mean?_ I asked. Before I knew it, I was awake again in the real world. I was laying on my back, and looking at the sky. _That conversation with Darkrai… Dang! I should have had him tell my team I'm okay, and not a newborn! Oh man, I messed up!_ I attempted to get up, but felt a unfamiliar pressure on my chest. I looked down to see Sparx looking back up at me. What stood out though was where he was. The shinx was lying on my chest, same ways as me, but his head was on my chest.

"Oh, you're up! You must have been really tired, because you took a small nap! I just decided to lay down here until you were up. C'mon, let's go look around some more," Sparx said, getting up off my chest. "Your face is red, hehe. Why is it so red! You look like a vulpix," Sparx chuckled. My face burned, and I immediately got up and shook my head. _Why am I blushing!?_ "Alright, let's go," Sparx said,trying to stifle his laughter.

The shinx began to walk forward, and I slowly followed his lead. He turned around though, and quickly walked besides me. "I forgot you're still learning to walk, so you can lean on me if you need to," He offered. I took him up on his offer, and leaned on him again. We started walking towards the forest, when a loud yell caused me to jump.

"Buddy! Where are you! Buddy," Venus yelled. _Oh crap, I forgot to stay where she told me to._ I looked at Sparx, and he looked back at me.

"Is that your name? Are you Buddy? Is that your mom? Or at least, do you know her?" Sparx fired off a million questions at once. However, I just decided to answer his last question. I gave him a small 'vee' and a nod of the head. "Oh, okay. Then we should probably go and see her then," He said. The shinx cleared his throat. "Over here! Buddy's over here," he called out to Venus. He began to walk, and I followed my new electric type friend at his side, leaning on him.

In the distance, I could see Venus running towards us, no doubt because Sparx called her over. She spotted us, and picked up her pace. Venus skidded to a halt in front of of. "Buddy! Thank Arceus you're okay. Julia would've skinned me alive," Venus sighed. Her face quickly turned into one of anger though, and she continued. "I told you to stay put! What would have happened if you were attacked by a feral pokemon!? Huh? You are in so much trouble," She scolded me.

My ears instinctively pinned back. She couldn't have been too much older than me, and she was here scolding me. _This isn't right. I'm the trainer, she should be listening to me! Still, she is a lot more intimidating when she's mad, which is hardly ever…_ I looked away, not wanting to stare at the flaaffy's eyes. "Eevee…" I whispered apologetically. In actuality, I wanted to say sorry, but that would have to get the point across. I stopped leaning against Sparx, and let myself lie down on the ground, the exhaustion from the little walk catching up to me.

"Sorry! It was my fault! I was just excited to make a new friend, and I wanted to show him around. Please don't be mean to Buddy!" Sparx pleaded.

Venus finally took notice of the new pokemon in her vicinity. "A friend? You and him are friends?" she questioned. Sparx nodded, and she looked at me for confirmation. I cocked my head, before nodding. _Technically, we just met, but I guess so…_ "A shinx huh? I haven't seen one before. You are young too, aren't you?"

"Yeah! My names Sparx, I'm the youngest in my family! We live in the forest. I'm glad you are here to take care of Buddy. I wasn't sure if he had a family or not. Are you his mom?"

Venus chuckled. "No, I'm more of… A big sister I guess? My name's Venus. Buddy here is adopted, we found his egg all alone, and kept him with us. Julia's more of his mom."

"I'm sorry," he said, nuzzling my neck. "How many pokemon are with you?"

"5 more. We're staying in that cabin for now."

"Oh cool! The humans used to live there! I wonder how it is inside there…" Sparx trailed off. He looked up to the sky, and noticed the clouds were starting to get thicker. "Uh oh, it's gonna rain soon! I better get home. Bye Buddy, bye Venus! I'll come hang out again with you soon, I promise!" He nuzzled my neck, and ran back into the direction we came from.

Venus gave me a quizzical look. "He's an affectionate one. I think he likes you~~" she teased. I rolled my eyes in response. "Alright, let's get back to the cabin. You are still in trouble, so you're grounded today. No going out for two days. You're gonna stay inside where we can see you," she said. Venus picked me up and began walking towards the cabin. _This… Sucks… I can't believe I'm being grounded by my pokemon._

* * *

The cabin was populated by everyone except James and Drake. Venus set me down on the bed, and went to talk to Julia about how I was 'being bad' and how she grounded me. I hoped that Julia would disagree with Venus, and say she was being ridiculous, but she actually sided with her! She came up to me and sat on the bed with me before she started to speak. "That was very bad of you, Buddy. When we tell you to stay or do something, we aren't doing it to be mean. We're doing it because we love you and want you to be safe. So, Venus is right, you're gonna be grounded for a day," she said. I gave her a look trying to convey 'this is total bullshit.' She simply shook her head and said "Don't pout, you did this to yourself."

I turned away from her and lied down, opting to just get some sleep instead of listening to them keep talking down to me. I felt a weird, wet sensation on the back of my head, and turned around to see Julia licking me. "I'm only doing this because I love you," she assured me. I didn't care though, I was pissed. I was so tired of being treated like a child. My mind went to what Darkrai had told me earlier. _Maybe I SHOULD have Mew temporarily erase my memories. Anything that would be able to let my team know I'm alright. And to stop treating me like a child! My name is Lucas, not Buddy! I want to be treated as Lucas, not Buddy._

I let out a huff and turned away again.

"Get down!" James yelled as he ducked down. Everyone instinctively did the same, with Venus picking me up and getting to the floor.

"What, what is it!?" Feeny yelled, pissed for being startled.

"There's humans outside. 4 to be exact. They've got pokeballs."

"So?"

"It doesn't matter for us, but Buddy is considered wild. He could be caught. Not to mention, something about them doesn't look right. They're wearing all black."

"So, we stay in here and don't make a noise, simple as that," Julia responded.

James looked out the window before ducking back down. "They're coming this way… Quick, move to the back!" James instructed. His pupils disappeared as he used his psychic powers to move some of the furniture in front of the door, effectively barricading it. "Now, no one make a noise. We wait."

* * *

 **This chapter was good to go a week ago, but I got hit by the flu real bad. I'm back to normal, however, and ready to go again. I got a plan for what's going to happen now, and I'm ready to see it through!**


	8. Chapter 8: Punished

James ushered us to the back of the cabin, with him staying closest to the door in case he needed to do anything drastic. Venus, Foley, and I seemed to be the most nervous. Everyone else, however, was just tense, getting into battle positions. "Shouldn't we just go out the back door?" Drake asked.

James shook his head. "Not yet, we shouldn't risk getting spotted," he reasoned. James looked outside again to see the humans talking amongst themselves in front of the cabin. "They're talking and looking around." One of the humans took off his baseball caps and scratched his head before putting the cap back on. I was going to walk forward and attempt to get a better view, but Julia pinned me down with her paw and ordered me to stay.

"One of them is holding their hand out and looking up to the sky. The other one, the one wearing a white lab coat is looking at his watch. Wait, I think it's starting to rain. Yup, they're starting to get drenched," James relayed. "Wait, I think they're- We need to go. They're coming towards us! Hide, hide!"

James dove behind the couch, Drake went to the foyer, Julia and Feeny hid in the bathroom, and Venus, Foley and I hid underneath the bed. Silence overtook the room, but soon the sound of wet footsteps could be heard. The door was stuck, but it was soon replaced with a thud. _Whoever was outside must have just shoulder tackled the door._ With the obstacles in front of the door gone, the door creaked open, and I could see a pair of boots enter the building, followed by 2 more. "Someone was here. Why would the door be barricaded?" one of the humans began to speak to himself.

"Move man, I'm getting soaked," another voice said as another pair of shoes entered the cabin. "We already checked the few pokemon around here, and no changes, can we go already?"

"Nay, and hearken unto my words, child of man. The folly of man hath caused a downpour in the general vicinity. Beware of thy foolish intervention, and getting smited from thy sky."

"Luis, shut the fuck up. What are you even talking about?"

"You are literally, **literally,** the most boring person in all of the world. What's it like? With a stick up your ass all the time, I mean. You're like a puppet," Luis responded.

"Guys, shut up. I just finished checking vitals on 17 different pokemon, after tracking them down. I'm really not in the mood to hear the both of you argue."

"Does nobody care about the fact that the door was blocked by a makeshift barricade, and two weeks ago it wasn't?"

"Doug, it was probably just some trainer taking shelter from the rain, or a wild pokemon. Calm down, who cares if someone was squatting here? No one lives here, it's pretty much free reign."

"Whatever," Doug replied. I watched as 2 pairs of shoes walked over to the couch, and sat down. "I could use a beer right now," Doug said out loud. One of the humans gave a grunt of affirmation, and soon the room was once again silent. Someone began to cough, and sniffle, before he stopped. Another person sat down on the bed, causing it to bend lower. Their feet were right in front of me, and I could see the exact make of the boots, as well as the designer. The bed creaked in agony, and dust came out of the mattress. My nose instinctively scrunched up, and my eyes watered. _Oh no._ I tried my hardest, but I could feel a sneeze coming up. Just as I was about to let it go, I felt a paw cover my nose. Immediately, the urge to sneeze was gone, but Instead it was replaced with Venus and Foleys paws, covering my nose and mouth, respectively.

"We can make a break in a few minutes. This rain is so bipolar. One moment it's pouring, the next it's sprinkling," one of the humans who's name wasn't said stated. "We took enough samples, and checked on the vitals of a few pokemon. We're all good to go. No new pokemon though, but we can always find more. Preferably on a warm day though," he explained.

I couldn't hold it anymore. I let a sneeze out, which was immediately covered by more paws, including my own. _My allergies are going to be the death of me!_ Whichever human was on the bed immediately stood up. "You guys heard that, right? Maybe Doug's right." He got on his knees and looked down underneath the bed. "Hey!"

He reached in and grabbed my body, attempting to pull me out from underneath the bed. Venus and Foley tried to hold me down, but they ended up just getting dragged out with me. "What are you little guys doing in here?" the human asked. He had a white lab coat, and rubber gloves. A messenger bag was strapped around his back, and he had rimmed glasses. I looked to my left to see the other humans getting up and walking towards us. "We're not gonna hurt you, we're doctors, see? Pokemon doctors. We're just doing some tests, okay? Stay still," the doctor ordered. He reached into his bag, and pulled out a syringe.

I began to struggle, but another pair of hands held onto me. Foley and Venus were still attempting to pull me down, but it was ineffective. Just as the doctor was about to put the syringe in me, a blue glow surrounded it. It was thrown from the doctors hand, and shattered onto the wall. "Dammit! What the hell!?" the doctor asked out loud. He looked towards the couch to see James, his ears raised.

"I got this, doc. Go back to getting a sample," Luis said. He unlatched two pokeballs from his belt, and threw them. A sneasel and a scyther came out of the pokeballs. "Keep the meowstic busy."

The pokemon lunged forward, and soon James was engrossed in a battle of his own. Drake saw his chance, and swooped down, knocking the scyther off guard. However, it quickly recovered, and was focused onto its new target, the flygon. "Julia, Feeny! A little help!" Drake shouted. The bathroom door burst open, and the two fire types emerged. The human with the baseball hat sighed, as he unlatched two pokeballs from his belt. He threw them, and a machamp and poliwhirl appeared through the light.

"Don't hurt them. Remember, we're here just to take samples," the doctor warned.

"You do your job, and I'll do mine," the guy in the baseball hat replied. The doctor said nothing and instead pulled out another syringe. This time, with James preoccupied, he was able to inject the syringe into my thigh. I let out a pained scream. Foley and Venus let me go, fear overtaking them. They retreated back underneath the bed, and I could barely hear their whimpers. Right now though, I was in too much pain to pay attention to what they were doing specifically.

I let out another scream as another needle pierced my other thigh. I looked at it to see a dark substance being injected into me. The other human, the one helping the doctor, held a syringe filled with dark red liquid. _That's my blood. They took my blood, and are injecting me with something else?_

"All done little guy. Here, I'll put you on the bed. You're probably exhausted, but you'll be good to go tomorrow. Alright flaaffy, your turn." He reached back underneath the bed, grabbing Venus. I felt the pang of dizziness hit me. _The blood… from such a small pokemon… I wouldn't have felt this tired… if I was still human…_ I lazily laid on my side, and watched Venus struggle to break free of her captors grasp. I lifted a paw in a worthless attempt to help, but it quickly fell back to my side.

"Let me go!" Venus shrieked. She let go a charge of electricity, but it didn't seem to affect either the doctor, or the other human.

"Told you the shockproof gloves would come in handy," the human told the doctor. The doctor hummed a sound of agreement. Then, he drew blood from Venus. She didn't yell, but rather let out a pained yelp. Once he was finished, he grabbed another syringe from his messenger bag, and injected her with the same black substance. This time, she let out a pained scream. Once they were finished, the human handed the doctor mine and Venus' blood samples, and he put them safely into his messenger bag.

"Good to go, little flaaffy. Same thing as your friend here, you'll be okay in a day," the doctor said, laying the exhausted flaaffy on the bed next to me. I stared at her, and saw her eyes filled with tears. She draped an exhausted paw over my midsection, holding onto me. "We're good, we got samples from the youngest ones. Let's go." The doctor said, standing up. He slipped out of the door, the other human following behind him.

"Jason, Saboteur, return," Luis said as he held out his pokeballs. The pokemon returned to their pokeballs, and Luis ran out.

"Hanzi, Mance, we're done here," Doug said, returning his pokemon to their pokeballs. He too, ran out after his partners. James however, didn't stop, and flung the door open, giving chase after them. Feeny ran right behind him. Julia and Drake, however, didn't give chase, and instead came to check up on me and Venus.

"Buddy, Venus! Can you hear me? Hey, answer me!" Julia ordered. I gave a small exhausted whimper of pain. Venus just pulled me a little bit closer to her, which greatly pained me. She held onto me as if I was a stuffed animal she was sleeping with. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? What did they do to you, I wasn't able to see."

"They're gone now, which is good. It doesn't look like they're gonna come back. James and Feeny were pissed though, they gave chase. If those humans aren't fast enough, they're gonna get killed. Not that I care, since they just attacked our two youngest pokemon…" Drake said.

"Needle… They took blood from Buddy… And me… They put something in the needle…" Venus managed. "I hurt. A lot. I'm really tired... and I can't move well."

"V-vee…" I started. I think I was starting to understand a bit on how to speak as a pokemon, but I was too tired to think much about it. "B-Buddy...Vee…" I said, surprised I managed to say my name. I'd continue to practice if I hadn't just been used as an experiment. _Maybe now, I can convince Mew to let me keep my memories..._

"You said your name. Good job, Buddy. I just wish it had been under happier circumstances," Julia spoke softly. She seemed to realize something, and looked around. "Foley? Where are you, it's safe to come out now," the ninetails said. Foley crawled out from under the bed, and ran to hug Drake. He was clearly trembling, and still scared.

"Are Buddy and V-Venus going to be okay," he stuttered. He still had tears in his eyes, and he looked to be genuinely frightened. _I haven't seen him this scared before…_

"I think so, but just in case, I might need you to help keep them safe, okay? I need you to be a big boy in case anything happens, okay?" Drake asked.

"O-Okay…" He said, still scared.

"Drake, you're scaring him. Foley, we're going to be okay. It just looks like they took some blood from them. About the injecting part, i'm not so sure. But for now, they seem to be okay, just in a lot of pain. I think we'll be okay for now, especially with Feeny and James chasing them. If the humans get hurt, they'll definitely not want to come back." Julia said, putting a much more positive spin on what Drake said. Foley nodded, but still seemed a bit scared. Julia walked towards the head of the bed, hopped up, and curled up around Venus and I. She used her tails to cover us, and put her head next to mine. "I'm so sorry, Venus and Buddy. I'm sorry we couldn't protect you."

I very slightly nuzzled her head, but she seemed to get the message. "Julia… It's okay… You tried. I'm just so tired… and I hurt. But… I t-think we'll be okay in a day or two. T-That's what the human doctor said…" Venus replied. Julias response to that was a quick lick to the wool on Venus' head. She then quickly licked my head as well, giving me a cowlick. I gave an annoyed huff. I would've fixed my fur if I wasn't so tired. "Julia, gross... " Venus grimaced.

 _My team… At least they're very protective… I feel very safe with all of them near me. And with Julia's tails covering me, I feel like I'm in a protective blanket. Take care of me, please… At least until I can become a human again…_

* * *

I noticed Mew didn't visit me last night, or if she did I don't remember it. I still remember my past life, so that means if we did talk, I somehow convinced her to let me keep my memories. My eyes still felt heavy, and my body was still exhausted and in pain. I wanted desperately to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. At least, not at the moment. Begrudgingly, I opened my eyes. I could immediately see that everyone was sleeping on the bed, and I mean everyone. Venus and Foley were to my right, together. Julia was still curled next to me, and draping me and Venus with her tails. Drake was at the foot of the bed, and Feeny was laying on the left side of me, stretched out completely and facing the opposite direction. I couldn't seem to find James, however.

A distinct shape was standing near the window, I noticed as I turned back. James stared out the window, not paying attention to behind him. _How long has he been standing there? Did he get any sleep?_ I let out a small sigh. He was always up and about, I barely remember actually seeing him sleep.

James turned around, hearing my sigh. "Oh, Buddy… You're up," He started. "I've just been looking outside, making sure those humans don't come back," He spat those last few words from his mouth. He paused before he continued once more. "Humans… Are not good, Buddy. They're evil creatures. They do not have the inherent good nature pokemon have. Their...their entire being has no moral compass. They do whatever they want, without thinking of the effect it would have on others, especially pokemon. Rather than seeing us as equal, we are lesser according to them. Arceus made us all, so why do they assume we are lesser beings?" He sighed. "Don't trust humans. They'll just end up using you."

I had never seen this side of James. I never knew he felt this way about humans, and it was a bit jarring. He poked fun and joked around with me about various things, so I assumed we were perfectly fine. _What happened that made him feel this way? If this is what he thinks about humans, should I even reveal I'm still alive? D-did he hate me?_ I tried my best to push the thought out of my head, but it quickly came back. _Maybe I shouldn't tell him. For that matter, maybe I shouldn't tell anyone here. Do they all feel the same way he does?_

James turned back towards the window. "I'm not going to let them hurt you again, Buddy. A kit shouldn't have to go through something like this. Ever. I'm not going to let them hurt you, or our family. I want you to have a normal life," He finished. The meowstic stared out the window, lost in thought. I wanted desperately to talk to him, but was afraid of what he'd do if he found out it was Lucas the human and not actually Buddy the eevee. I let out an involuntary sneeze, causing James to turn his head, and let a warm smile creep onto his face. "You should go back to sleep. You are just getting over a cold after all. I should go to bed myself. Scoot over, I'll lie down next to you." I did as he said, scooting closer to Venus and Julia. He crawled over Feeny and lied down next to me, putting his arms behind his head. I felt very, very warm. And comfortable. This warmth wasn't like a regular heat warmth. This was something else, something like… something I couldn't explain. Was it happiness? Was it safety? _It's definitely one of those, thats for sure._

James let out a small yawn. "Goodnight, Buddy." I let out a small 'vee', hoping he would understand I was trying to say goodnight as well. After that, I finally managed to fall asleep again.

Surprisingly, when I woke up, no one had left the bed. A quick glance seemed to show that everyone was indeed in the same positions they had been when I woke up at night. There wasn't any sun out, it was still dark. _Everyone must be exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Well, it's good to take some days of rest._ Last night came back to my memory, mostly about what James said about humans. _Did he hate me? He seemed genuinely sad that I was gone, but maybe that was because everyone else was listening. What are his true feelings?_ I sighed. _Of course the one psychic on my team is the one who might potentially hate me. That throws 'trying to get him to telepathically talk to me out' the window._

So who would I try and tell? I thought about it for a bit, trying to figure it out. _Julia would be good, or Feeny. Feeny might tell James though._ I shook my head. _What am I doing? James doesn't hate me. He doesn't… Right?_ Why did this bother me so much? I guess it's because I always considered him a close friend. Just to find out he hates me though? I… I hope not. I hope I'm wrong.

Since it was still dark, I decided to just sleep some more. That was at least something I could still enjoy while I was a pokemon.

* * *

I woke up again, this time the sun was out and the bed was vacated. I could see drake at the top of the foyer, daydreaming. I stretched letting out a small groan, causing Drake to notice me. "Morning," he called. I stood up, still stretching my legs as I walked towards the edge of the bed. From up here, the height seemed very high, and I was a little afraid to jump down. However, I knew I needed to get down, and tried to figure out the best possible way to do it. _It has a lot to do with posture and the way I land, right? I'm gonna eat dirt the first time I do this, I know it._ I bent my legs, and got low to the bed, preparing for the jump.

...I was trying to jump, but my legs wouldn't let me. I chickened out, backed away from the edge, and folded my ears down, ashamed of myself. "I gotchu, don't worry about it Buddy," Drake said as he picked me up and put me on the ground. I looked up at him as he gave me a gentle pat on the head. "Don't worry about jumping for now, Buddy. You are still small, so you need time to let your muscles grow strong," he explained. I guess he was right. Still, I felt ashamed for being so scared of a small height. I gave him a small nod.

A thought popped into my head. _Drake! I could tell Drake! I could tell him im human and he'd be fine with it!_ With that, I was resolute to find some way to let him know. I set off to look through the drawers for a marker or a pen. Using my head, I managed to open a cabinet near the bed. "Hey, I, er… Well ok, go explore, but don't do anything crazy ok? You act like it's been a whole year since you've moved around!" Drake said. I vocalized a noise that could be interpreted into 'ok' before I started digging through the dark. I pulled out some envelopes, and looked through them.

" _...I was amazed at the taste. Everything blended well together, the meat, the soup, the-well whatever else was in there made it great. I had to praise my mother for this great " Mom, this is really, really goo- HOT!" I practically jumped out of my chair because of the intensity of the heat. In a flurry of panic, I opened up the cupboard, looking for a glass. There were none. I turned back to my mother, breathing through my mouth to hopefully stop the heat. My mother had this stupid smirk on her face that said she knew where the cups was 'Mark gets no cups' day as far as she was concerned…"_

The words 'REJECTED' were written in bright red at the bottom of it. It was my guess that it was some story the person who lived here tried to write. _It's written like a teenager… Could be worse._ I continued to look into the cabinet before giving up and going to the next cabinet. More papers were there, but nothing caught my interest. There was a very neatly folded paper in the back which I pulled out with my mouth, and opened it up to read.

" _I thought I could push through it, push my feelings aside, and support you, but I'm too anxious. I constantly worry about what you might do with that person. What might become of you two. I know it's really early in your relationship, but I can't bare the thought of you truly loving someone else and doing everything with that person, when all this time, I'd imagine it would be the both of us doing everything together. Whatever that might be, traveling, chilling and playing games, wherever life would've taken us. I looked forward to it for so long._

 _I lived so much of my life with you on a pedestal, that I didn't even think about the alternative, a life without you in it. I guess that's why I've always felt so lost and without a purpose. It's why I refused anyone that was remotely interested in me because in the back of my mind, I was always thinking about you."_

My eyes skimmed over what I was reading. Was this a breakup letter? This didn't seem like it… No, it seems too… personal. Whatever this was… it was filled with hurt.

" _I don't think we'll ever speak again after this. It hurts too much knowing that you chose someone else over me after everything we've been through. Even if your relationship doesn't work out, I don't think I can recover from the choice you made. Yeah, I know there have been plenty of incidents where we broke off like this, but this is different. I think the only way we'll speak again is if you decide to chase after me, though I highly doubt that would happen. In my dreams, right?_

 _We were so close to seeing each other. So very close. I waited for so long. You meant the whole world to me. You don't owe me anything, I see that. But after loving you for so long, I felt like I deserved something. Anything. Even a visit. But now, I don't think I will be able to pull myself together, even for just for a visit. It all just seems so… pointless. Being there with you and knowing that you have someone else on your mind… I never really did matter that much to you did I?"_

There was so much hurt in this letter. I decided to stop reading it. As much as I would like to finish and understand the context, I knew that 1. I was never going to get the full story and 2. It didn't help me with my situation at all. _It's also getting depressing…_

I left it alone and went to a dresser, insisting on trying to find a pen or something to write. "You're making quite a mess little guy… Well whatever, that's not my problem, I'm just supposed to watch you," Drake stated out loud. Ignoring him, I used my mouth to pull open a dresser. It took more might than I thought, and I actually had to clamp down just to get a grip and pull it open. I cursed my lack of teeth as a small bit of pain shot up my mouth. _There's just the tiniest bit of teeth, I can feel it. Grow dammit, grow!_ I finally looked inside the dresser.

 _Bingo!_

Inside the dresser were multitudes of different kinds of paints. Off the top of my head I could see blue, yellow, orange, green, purple, yed, and another blue. I took a look back to see what drake was doing. He was looking out the window right now. Now was the time to take action. I grabbed 4 bottles out and put them behind the island counter in the middle so the flygon wouldn't see what I was going to do and attempt to stop it early. I used my mouth and attempted to twist the cap off. I gripped and twisted, and attempted to remove the cap with my mouth. As the cap came off, I was unprepared and lost my balance, falling straight down onto another paint bottle. The bottle I fell on must have had a loose cap, because it shot out and Orange paint spilled all over my tail and butt.

I got up and quickly pressed down on the open paint bottle. A small dollop of blue paint spilled onto the wood floor. I quickly used my left paw and wrote the letter L. As I was beginning to write the U, the blue paint dried up. I stomped on the blue paint bottle, but all that came out was air. Frustrated, I attempted to open the green bottle, and did so easily. _Must have been another loose cap._ Quickly stepping down on the bottle, I covered my right paw in green paint. "Buddy, what are you doing?" Drake questioned, his voice high pitched because he couldn't see me but heard me making noise.

I had no time to spare, I hastily wrote the rest of my name. U. C. A. S. As soon as I finished, drake appeared from behind me. "Oh Buddy, no! What did you do!?" I looked him straight in the eyes and pointed a paw at the ground.

"Vee!" Was all I managed to exclaim. I had a great smug smile on my face. _This is it! They're gonna help me get back to normal!_ Drake looked down at the lettering.

"What is this? Buddy? What?" He asked seemingly no one. He crouched down to study the letters. "These are weird symbols. I'm not sure what they are. Though… I think I've seen a few of these before. But from where?"

"Whatever, that's not the point. Buddy, you can't go messing around like that. Aw look, you got yourself dirty. Julia is gonna kiiiiiill me. Let's get you and this mess cleaned up," He ordered. My smug smile disappeared in an instant, replaced with a look of horror. _H-he didn't recognize it. He doesn't recognize the human lettering! He doesn't know english! He doesn't know its me!_ I backed up. "Buddy, you need to get cleaned."

 _If I could just wait until James was around… I think he knows english…_ I ran to the other side, with Drake diving after me. He missed, and I moved as fast as I could (Which really wasn't at all fast) to the other side. Before Drake could go for another dive, I moved quickly to where I first wrote out my name. "I'm not going to hurt you, but if you don't get clean, Julia might hurt me!" He stated. I took another backstep, but slipped on paint. My entire balance was lost as I fell on my side, covering my entire right side in blue, orange, and green paint. "You move like you haven't gotten a chance to move in a year and a half!" Drake exclaimed. I got up but quickly lost my footing again. Now, anything that was left of my writing was smushed onto my fur. I quickly kicked off the island, and slid towards the bed, leaving a trail of mismatched paint. My goal was to hide under the bed until James got home, and possibly force him to telepathically talk with me so I could tell him what was going on. I wouldn't have left the safety of the bed without getting him to talk to me.

The reality was that before I could even get a 1/5th of the way to the bed, Drake grabbed me and picked me up. "You're an evasive one, you little bastard," Drake breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he finished saying that, the door opened.

"Oh My- What in the name of- What happened?" Julia's voice questioned. Me and Drake looked at her, then each other.

"You know, honestly this isn't the worst scenario in my head," Feeny laughed as she came inside the cabin. "I'll draw the bath."

* * *

 **Yes I've been gone a long time. Sorry. I would like to keep this going again, but no scheduling. I might just write at work cause im so bored. Let's be honest, you probably don't care what happened or where I've been or what's going on so I won't bore you with the details. I have a twitch if you want to check it out. Its Velsunn. Don't gotta come but I'm usually there or you can ask me anything on twitter. Or, you can message me if you want to know anything or want to give me ideas.**

 **The point being I am planning on doing the story some more. I hope the fans (if any of you are still left) enjoyed this. Thank you.**


	9. Chapter 9: Course of Action

**Im seriously thinking about possibly uploading each chapter I do frequently, instead of going for a long chapter, maybe just a new chapter a week or two. Basically Im trying to decide between going for longer chapters but less updates, or shorter chapters and more frequent updates. If this chapter is shorter, then that may just be me experimenting. Let me know what you guys think.**

* * *

"I'm going to have to childproof this whole house," Julia said, shaking her head. Feeny let a small chuckle out as she finished pouring another bowl of water over my head. I could barely see, the fur on my head damp and covering my eyes. I shook my head, trying to get the water off my fur.

A hand physically restrained me from moving my head anymore. "Hey, you're the one who got dirty. Pay the price Mister," Feeny scolded. I groaned as she scrubbed my back some more, getting rid of the paint stuck on my fur. It was a hard scrubbing with the rag, something that actually hurt my fur. _Baths suck…_ Feeny moved on towards my paws. As she held onto them and scrubbed, a feeling of discomfort came over me. I tried to pull my paw back, but she held on tightly. Something about others touching my paws had clearly not sat well with me. _Is this a pokemon thing, or something with me? I've never had anyone hold my hand, so I don't know…_

Speaking of pokemon things, I've recently realized that my mind has been all over the place. It's getting jumbled up, I've recently felt that I'm forgetting my memories. At least, some of them. I can't remember where I was born, or what my best friends name was. If I fixate on it very hard, I can recall certain names, but I can't put the names to faces. Besides just losing bits and pieces of my memories, I've noticed that I've started acting more… Childish. Running from Drake earlier with the paint wasn't just because he was going to destroy my message, it was also partly because he was chasing me, and I was… Excited? Happy? I can't tell if me becoming a pokemon cub is having mental effects on me, or if I'm just going crazy from all the stress.

The water was muddied into a slurry of colors, the paint looking as if it was watercolor instead of regular paint. Feeny finished my front paws and started working on my back paws. "VEE!" I squealed as I jumped forward, making a splash and slipping under the water. I rose back up and shook the water out of my fur.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You're clearly not a fan of anyone touching your paws, and especially your back paws. I'm sorry, but please trust me and let me clean it. It needs to be clean, ok?" Feeny asked. I glared at her. _Really, really don't like people touching my paws. Big, big, BIG no-no. Not even you Feeny. I don't know…_ I sighed as I looked away. Feeny slowly reached for my hind paws, and as she began to clean them, I had to grit my non-existent teeth and clench my eyes.

"There! We're done with the back paws, Ok? We're all done," Feeny said. "He takes after you, Julia."

Julia rolled her eyes. "It's perfectly normal to not want anyone to touch your hind paws. It's not exactly normal, and when they grab you there, you feel vulnerable."

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Buddy's sure as hecks not gonna be a vaporeon, with how much he doesn't like the bath," Julia stated. _Yeah, there's a lot of reasons Im afraid of water. I wonder if my fear doesn't come from another person you know. Name's Lucas, he's afraid of water, ever heard of him? And your man-handling of a bath isn't exactly something I feel comfortable about._

"Alright, nearly done. Let's just clean a little more…" Feeny began to bring the rag near my tail, and started to clean. First the tail, then she began to go lower, cleaning all around, and then-

"EEVEE!" I yelled as I jumped back and let out a growl. Feeny recoiled slightly. _No way. Nuh-uh. I may be a teenager in the body of a pokemon cub, but I still have my dignity. This is NOT happening._

"Whoa there, calm down Buddy," Feeny worried, "I didn't mean to make you mad." She tried to reach an arm forward, but I backed up against the wall. "Hey, I'm sorry alright? It's-"

"Feeny, I got this. Why don't you go relax," Julia interrupted. Feeny attempted to argue, but quickly gave up and left the bathroom, closing the door behind her. "Alright Buddy. We gotta clean you. Maybe you didn't want Feeny to do it, but I hope you'll be ok with me doing it? May I try?" She asked. I really, really didn't want to, but I knew that no matter what, they were gonna get someone to do it. To be entirely honest, I'd rather have Julia clean me then Feeny. Maybe it was that Feeny was always my best friend, and Julia was always the motherly pokemon of the group.

Dejected, I sighed as I walked forward. I was just going to focus on thinking, or humming, or moving my tail around. I didn't know how to use my tail as much as I thought I did. It just kinda was there. It would probably be good to learn how to use it. Just in case. Worse comes to worse, I could always play around with it.

I gasped as Julia began to clean me. This was gonna suck.

* * *

I walked out of the bathroom as soon as I was done with my bath. The paint trail and splotches on the ground were cleaned up. All I wanted to do was shake myself and dry myself off, and maybe rub myself on the bed. I walked towards the bed, and shaked my body around. James, Drake, and Venus were caught in the crossfire as water splashed them. "Aaah, cold!" Drake whimpered. Venus laughed it off, and James didn't give it any thought and continued to meditate.

Julia walked out from the bathroom, breathing a sigh of relief. "I don't remember cubs being this hard to take care of," Julia sighed. She walked over to where Feeny was sitting down, lost in thought. There, she stood, letting the air fall silent.

"We need to plan our next move," James spoke, breaking the silence. All eyes were on him, as he kept his eyes closed. "We can't stay here forever. Lucas' body is still gone, and the chances of us finding him are gone as well. Which leaves our next course of action: Do we stay here for a bit longer, or leave. We currently don't have a goal in mind. We can't stay here, not with those people around. If they're lurking nearby, that is no way to raise Buddy. Living in fear? It's terrible for him. No child should have to be afraid for their life growing up…" He trailed off, seemingly remembering something. James' quickly picked up where he left off, "Besides that, Venus and Foley are still young too. We just don't have an endgame. It's also going to be winter soon, and I'm not sure if this place will have enough food for then."

"Buddy doesn't even have teeth yet. Hell, he doesn't even know how to run yet. I'm not sure if it'd be a good idea to leave right now with that in mind," Julia responded.

"He does have a point though. Last time I had to go to the pokemart, and that took a long time. Lucas' wallet isn't bottomless. Maybe it's time to teach buddy how to defend himself?" Drake asked as he walked up to the island.

"He's less than a week old. He can't even speak like us, he's still saying 'Eevee', so that sounds like a terrible idea. I know you're coming from the right place Drake, but how old were you when you learned to fight? I know for sure I wasn't a week old?" Julia retorted.

I was bored of the conversation at that point and was more interested in the swishing and back and forth motions of my newest target: Drakes tail. I felt I should have been more interested in the conversation, considering it was about the next plan of action, but… I couldn't get Drakes tail out of my mind. _Curse you Mew for making me a pokemon child!_ I snuck up behind my target, and crouched down so I wouldn't be seen. I memorized it's movements, and waited for the perfect time to strike.

 _Now!_ I pounced at it. My pounce was sloppy at best, and I slipped on my front two paws, but I wasn't a quitter. I quickly wrapped my front legs around the tail and opened my mouth, chomping down on it. Granted, I had no real teeth, so it was just my pretty much me giving it a weird hickey. _Dammit, I have no teeth and I'm still not completely able to move correctly with my quadruped body!_

Drake let out a small "eep" as he turned around to look at what on his tail. He saw me on there, and let out a small sigh before he began to swish it around more. I held on as if life depended on it. "H-hey Buddy, you can't sneak up on me and just grab my tail! Y-you gotta get off," Drake babbled. He moved it around more, but I kept my clutch on it and giggled as he did it.

"Aw, how cute! Look Julia! Look at him! He's holding onto Drake's tail! This is the first time I've seen him play! He's so cute!" Venus bubbled. Hearing those words made me realize, I wasn't a pokemon child! I was a teenage human boy. I quickly stopped holding his tail, and got back up on all fours. I looked away from them, embarrassed. "V-vee" I mumbled. _What the hell is wrong with me? Why did I do that? It just felt like something was taking control of me, and I couldn't help but listen to it. Without a doubt, being a child pokemon was making me have different thoughts and ideas. I was essentially regressing into a child again._ I looked at Drake's tail again. _It was fun though… No! No, I have to act my age! My REAL age. No more playing!_ I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't act like a child again, but part of me knew it was going to be broken.

"You made a noise like a girl," Feeny laughed. Drake groaned, and they went back to talking about what their next course of action was. Suddenly, I was assaulted with a hug. "You are so cute," Venus chirped. I blushed and felt ungodly embarrassed, and looked away. Venus just continued to hug me while everyone else was talking. Foley was the only one not in the house, and that was because he was enjoying the sunlight and warmth it radiated, being a grass type and all. _He's gonna have to enjoy it while he can, before winter comes._

* * *

The rest of the day went by normally. Everyone just hung out, while the older pokemon talked about what to do. They were split on the decision, and were trying to figure out what to do, but it seemed they were leaning more towards leaving. But, that was a conversation for another day. Right now everyone was sleeping, including me.

I was in a sort of landscape. A small island with a single bent tree in the shape of a weird J. Walking to the sides of the island led to a huge cliff, with jagged edges. There was no way down. There was a safe side, but it was covered with water, a deal I wasn't going to take. In the distance, there was also another island just like this one, but the ocean filled area had pockets of places where the ocean just… disappeared… Replaced with nothing. Just darkness. It was as if the world was flat, and the open area was just falling through the world. There was no way I could swim, and even if I could, I couldn't have navigated across the area. There was really no way off the island.

A bright light blinded me momentarily, and I fell back onto the ground. As the light cleared and I was able to see once more, I noticed a familiar pink pokemon. "M-mew? Is that you?"

Mew turned around, and looked down to me as she was floating above me. "Listen, Lucas! Or Buddy, whatever you go by now, you need to-" Mew stopped momentarily and floated above even higher, before floating down next to me again. "Really? This is what you're feeling right now? I must admit it's different than usual, normally it's a cage, or human prison…" Mew trailed off. "That's not the point! Listen to me! You need to wake up!"

"Mew, what's going on? Can you put me back in my human body? I just want to be-"

"Shut up!" Mew snapped. I recoiled, I had never seen her this strict and angry before. I promptly shut my mouth. "This is way more important right now. You need to wake up! I'm going to come find you and help you, alright? You are in danger, and in a dangerous area!"

"What!? Can't you just teleport here?" I asked, scared.

"I may be psychic but I can't teleport to a place I've never been. There's a reason teleporting only works in places you have memorised very well. Even then, it can get messed up, So I'll do my best to get to you. Try and stay in the area!"

"Wh-what's happening though?"

"There are a series of unfortunate events going on in the world right now. A new group is rising up, and things are going bad. You're infected, Lots of people are infected. They're working on making it airborne!"

"What!? What are you talking about!"

"Listen to me! Do not trust anyone outside of your team! And most of all, do not let-"

* * *

The area around me vanished, and I woke up to my eyes burning. The smell of smoke was in the air, and I let out a cough before I could strain to open my eyes.

The cabin was on fire.


	10. Chapter 10A: Retreat

**Gonna try something else, a new thing. Please please PLEASE let me know if you guys enjoy this or not. This won't be an every chapter thing, but whenever the story calls for it for big events.**

* * *

I coughed. My throat was on fire, and I could barely breathe without coughing. I slowly opened my eyes, which were stinging. Through blurry eyes, I could see I was in the forest, not inside the cozy cabin I had called home. _What happened?_ A small jolt rushed through me as I slightly remembered what happened. _I… I woke up, and the cabin was on fire. I think… I think I woke someone up, and I nearly passed out from the smoke. Something blue… James? James was carrying me out and away from the fire… and then I passed out…_

I was looking around to find the cabin, hoping it was still going to be ok, that maybe the fire has just burnt a little of the area, but it was still liveable in. Instead of seeing the cabin with slight burn marks, All I could see was an inferno, closely resembling a bonfire. _Where… Where is everyone else? Are they ok?_ It was dark out, but the fire managed to give enough light to see the surrounding area. I could make out a few pokemon looking from the safety of their trees and bushes, looking at the fire. I could see a zigzagoon, furret, and a few pidgey's, among others that I couldn't seem to identify.

Wind blew down from the sky as something landed behind me. I quickly turned around and saw a flygon land carrying a flaaffy and a breloom. "Listen to me," He said before I quickly recognized the voice to be drake's, "You two need to take care of Buddy for now. Stay away from the fire, especially you Foley. Venus, since you're the oldest one out of you three, you're in charge. Whatever you think is best, do it. Julia or myself will come find you, ok? Stay safe." Venus nodded, and Foley gave his best 'okay' through shaky voice. Drake turned around to me, before talking. "Buddy, everything's going to be ok. Listen to your big sister Venus," He assured. Drake was being serious, something that I had rarely seen. Whatever happened must have been serious. "Go," He ordered as he flew up into the air and back towards the house fire.

I started to walk back to the house to make sure everything was ok, but found myself lifted up off the ground. "Buddy, no this is too dangerous, we need to go now!" she stressed. I tried to thrash myself off to go back to help, but she tightened her grip, making sure to secure me over her shoulder. "Buddy, This is happening. They'll come find us after. Foley, let's go," Venus urged. I thrashed and yelled, trying to get out of her grasp to go help the others. "Stop it!" Venus yelled. But I kept trying and screaming 'Vee, Eevee!' which was supposed to say 'let me go! I want to help!'

The sound of wood splintering filled the forest with noise. "Look out!" I heard a voice yell before there were a small amount of screams. I couldn't see anything, but from the sounds of it, I think the fire had spread or something had broken. "No you idiots! That's the wrong fire type! They're the one trying to help!" The voice screamed before we were a distance away enough that I couldn't make out that voice anymore.

I deflated and stopped trying to fight Venus' grasp. I was tired out, and sad. Sad I couldn't do anything to help in this useless body. Sad I was nothing but a burden. I let out a small sniffle as I tried to hold back my tears, but to no avail. _I can't even stop crying. I hate me, I hate everything about me, I hate what I've become. I can't even help my team…_ Venus seemed to take notice. "I'm sorry for yelling, Buddy. I didn't mean to make you cry," She said apologetically.

"Buddy, they're gonna be ok, alright? They're really good fighters! They were taught by our old trainer Lucas, so they know what they're doing! They know what they're doing, they're gonna come and get us after that, so don't be sad, ok?" Foley added as he walked behind Venus to face me during the walk. He looked me in the eyes as he said that, and for a small minute, it felt like everything was going to be alright. I sniffed and gave him a small nod. He let a small smile show on his face. "I promise, ok? When we're done going somewhere, we'll play ok?" He assured. I didn't give him a response that time, instead opting to close my eyes.

We- or rather, Foley and Venus- continued to walk for a few more minutes down the moonlit path. The few pokemon we did see quickly walked to where we were coming from, no doubt wanting to see what all the commotion was.

"Hey, you children!" A female voice called out to my right. All of us immediately turned towards the voice. A luxray stepped out of the shadows and addressed Venus directly. "You're carrying a cub? What's happening? Do you need somewhere to stay?" She asked politely.

"T-there was a fire over there and m-my friends- I mean family- told me to hide for now," She mumbled.

"I see. Well, if it can help you out, my family can house you for a while until they come back. If you'd like of course, there's no pressure," She added.

"I think it'll be a good idea Venus! It's close so they don't have to go far to find us, and I have a good feeling about this!" Foley beamed. Venus stood about, lost in thought, before quickly making a decision.

"You always trust people way to easily, Foley. Though this time, I agree with you. Ok, we'll stay with you. Thank you for your help Mrs…?"

"Larxy. Dumb name I know, but I didn't pick it," She chuckled. "Let's get you away from the danger. C'mon." Larxy lead the rest of us through the forest, eventually reaching a small hole at the bottom of a big tree. "Small squeeze for adults, but for you young ones it'll be easy as lightning! Our home is bigger on the inside, I promise!"

" _Our" home?_

Venus slipped through the hole, careful to not hit my head on the base of the trunk. True to the Luxray's words, the inside was a lot bigger and cozier. Foley hopped in, and then Larxy. "Honey, I'm back. Found out what it was too," She called out. A light began to to bounce off the walls before another pokemon stepped out from another hallway. This was a decently sized pokemon, slightly bigger than the luxray, and had a huge mane that was A mix of red, yellow, and orange. I recognized the pokemon as a Pyroar!

"Good to see everything's okay. I see you brought guests! Hello you two- oops, three of you, didn't see you there little guy!" he said, directing that last part towards me. His voice was gruff, but kind. "I'm sure you met my mate Larxy. My name's Spire. And this is our-"

"My name's Sparx!" A little shinx said as he jumped from behind his father. _Sparx?_ I immediately wriggled to get free. Seemingly understanding, Venus put me down. "Oh it you! Hi! How have you been!? I missed you! Wanna play some more!?" He bombarded me with questions, coming closer and circling around me before giving me a playful nudge and laying on my side. I let out a giggle and began to bat my paw at him, and he began to do the same.

"You've met him before, Sparx?" his father asked. A loud boom was audible from the outside, sounding like a tree or two had snapped in half. Everyone was silent, anticipating more noise. However, it went down to normal volume levels, or whatever was considered normal at this moment. Spire repeated the question.

"Y-yeah!" Sparx said, slightly shaken by the loud noise, but going back to normal. "Remember? I told you I met a friend a while ago, and we were playing! Remember? Remember dad? Remember!?" the young shinx chirped.

"Yes, I remember now," He chuckled. "Well, I hope you little one's are ok. Want to explain what happened and where you're from?" While Spire was talking to Venus and Foley, Larxy was watching me and Sparx play-wrestle. She was watching with an amused smile, more likely happy that her son had a new friend.

I stopped as my ears perked up, picking up a new sound. It was faint, but it was the sound of bushes and twigs snapping. It shouldn't bother me, but something about it felt different. It felt… heavier. Not like a pokemon. Next came the smell. I was still attempting to get used to my nose, but I could smell this scent as it was easily identifiable by how strong it was. It was something I could remember from when I was human. It smelled like strong cologne.

A human was nearby...


	11. Chapter 10B: Rumble

If there was something I knew in this world, it was fire. And there was fire nearby.

I quickly pushed myself off the bed to see the embers near the bathroom of the cabin. I quickly shook James, who instantly woke up and noticed something was wrong. "...I should've seen this coming, I knew something felt wrong," He said. I took a deep breath as I started to wake up Julia too. "This isn't going to stop. This isn't a natural fire, that fire is made from a fire type," James said as he jumped off the bed.

"We need to-" The fire spread to the roof and part of it collapsed. The rest of the team woke up immediately, some jumping, and others letting out a small yelp. "What's going on!?" Venus yelled.

"Fire! Fire!" Drake shouted as he jumped down from his perched area. The fire was closest to him, causing him to cough. Foley was petrified, too afraid to move. He looked sick to his stomach. Buddy and Venus started coughing. The little eevee started to stand up, before he dropped back down onto his stomach, too dizzy from the smoke inhalation.

"James, you need to-" Julia started

"I'm on it," he cut her off. The meowstic picked up the eevee, and ran to the door. "Arceus, it's blocked!" His ears arose as his entire body was covered in a teal aura. Cracks were heard, and in an instant, the door was blown off its hinges, flying into a tree. Everything that was behind it was pushed away too, mostly boulders and tree trunks. James ran outside, and out of my vision.

A part of the cabin's roof fell through, a boulder falling through it. The moonlight could easily been seen from the burning house. It was almost poetic, seeing the shining moon and smoke surrounding it. I stood up and stepped in the center of the house. "This isn't right. Who is trying to kill us…"

"HEY! Some of us aren't fire types, and are actually-" Drake coughed before continuing, "Actually unable to stay in here for much longer. Not to mention we have a grass-type in here!"

"He's right. Ok, everyone, get-" Julia was interrupted by more crackling and a howl from outside. The door was being blocked by four pokemon. Two houndooms, a kabutops, and a golem. _It's those houndooms from before, the ones who tried to eat Buddy!_ The way they were blocking the door, there was absolutely no way any pokemon, much less Drake carrying two pokemon, would be able to leave.

"You!? You did this?" I yelled.

"Remember me? Does the name Helen and Brim ring a bell?" Brim smirked. "You made us go hungry. This time, we're going to feast on all of you. And we're not losing this time, not again, not with us and our friends. You're going to be roasted here." The houndoom laughed.

"Drake, get the children out of here!" Julia yelled.

"But-"

"No! Go now! Go! We'll hold them off!" Julia ordered. Drake coughed and wiped his eyes, trying to keep them from burning. He nodded, and scooped up Venus, and a still-petrified Foley. Using his tail, he scooped up the backpack containing all our pokeballs. Helen tried to get in but I stepped in between them, stopping her in her tracks.

"I'll be back, I swear!" Drake assured as he jumped through the hole in the roof, taking off into the air. I watched him fly up and away from us, until I couldn't see him in the dark anymore.

"Now, I can crush your skulls without traumatizing my kids," I snarled. I immediately took a battle stance, and Julia got low, getting ready to pounce. The houndoom duo took a stance similar to Julia's, while the kabutops crossed it's blades. The golem just smirked.

Brim was the first to make the move. He went in for a bite on me, but I gave him a quick roundhouse to the ribs. The golem was quick to use rock throw on me, and I hadn't had enough time to properly guard against it. I raised my hands to soften the blow, but pain exploded in my arms. I skidded back a bit, and let out a pained exhale.

Julia jumped in next, going to attack the golem, but was stopped by the kabutops, who slashed at her. The Ninetails was barely able to dodge it, but managed to escape harm. She snarled, before going in for the kabutops. A stream of fire came out from Julia's mouth, hitting Helen, the kabutops, and the golem. The kabutops and houndoom seemed nearly unaffected. The golem had a small pained expression on his face, but shook it off quickly.

The pain subsided in my arms and I went in for another attack, this time on Helen. I went for an uppercut, but she was fast and dodged it. I quickly changed my attack, and went for a grab on her forelegs. I missed her right, but grabbed her left, quickly lifting her up in the air. I was about to throw her into the wall when a sharp pain entered my left hand, causing me to let go of her. The houndoom did hit the wall, but quickly recovered, not suffering the full extent of the attack. Brim went for a cut on my ribs, jumping back before I was able to counter-attack. I looked at my hand and ribs, seeing the blood running from them. It hurt like arceus' wrath, but I would have to tough through the pain. Julia wasn't seeming to do well either, getting pelted by boulders and rocks, and whenever she was close enough for an attack, the kabutops slashed her away. _This is a losing battle, we need to play to our strengths right now…_ Seeing an opening, I jumped over brim, and went for a high jump kick on the golem. He never saw it coming, and my foot connected with his face. He fell backwards, having a dazed look in his eyes. He quickly snapped back to reality, and stared right at me. His eyes were full of anger, and he took a step forward. "Great, now I gotta break your foot," he growled, his voice low and gravely.

I took up a fighting stance as he threw another rock at me. I quickly blocked it, but was caught off guard by him running directly at me and picking me up. I was hoisted over his chest as he squeezed his arms together. My back felt pain I had never felt before, and I screamed. He held me as I went for a punch on his eyes. As I was pummeling his face, heat scorched my back. One of the houndooms was putting a steady stream of fire on my back. I may have been a fire type, but I could still feel the pain from it, even if it was dulled just a bit.

One of my punches connected with the side of his head and he loosened the bear hug, but didn't let me go completely. "Alright you bitch! You wanna play rough? Let's play rough!" He roared. In one complete motion, he lifted me over his head and threw me against the wall. I expected to hit it solidly, and bounce back, but to my surprise the wood gave way, and the air from the forest hit me. I landed on the ground, skidding to a stop and before I got a chance to recover, a boulder hit me, pushing me back farther outside.

I pushed the boulder off of me, and attempted to get up, but the pain ached in my back. I tried again, this time successfully getting up. My knees ached, my back ached, my arms ached, but I stood up. "This is gonna hurt in the morning…" I joked. I took a quick breath, letting the fresh air fill my lungs, happy I wasn't at least breathing in anymore smoke.

"Heads up!" Julia shouted as Brim flew out from the hole. Thinking quickly, I went in to catch him, and wrapped my arms around him. Using the momentum from him, I went for a quick spin before raising him over my head, and slamming him into the dirt.

"Nice one, Jule's!" I called back over. She jumped out of the burning cabin, which had all by collapsed by now, shooting a fireball back into the cabin. I gave a quick glance to our right to see that other pokemon were watching. Some of them behind tree's looking scared, others out in the open, enjoying the scene.

"Look out!" A voice from above me screeched, causing me to whip my head back to the action. Suddenly, a jet of water rushed out from the cabin. Julia jumped to the left and I followed suit. _Damn, I forgot Kabutops is also part water type. Who was that who said to look out?_ I looked at the tree I was under, and couldn't see any discernible pokemon. Whoever it was wasn't showing themselves at the moment. Helen jumped out from the hole, immediately going for Julia.

"You bitch!" She bellowed as she tackled my friend. The rolled around, snapping and clawing at each other, attempted to get the other party to back down. I was about to make my way to her and help, but a boulder rolled right past me, nearly hitting me. Pokemon screamed as some backed away from the fight, afraid of getting hurt.

"This shit's getting old," I insulted the golem, "You need some new tricks." The golem quickly moved forward, and got into the range of my fire attacks. I went for a flamethrower attack, and just as I opened my mouth, the golem used a sand attack. Some of the sand was instantly gone, but the rest of it hit my eyes, causing me to stop attacking and attempt to cleanse the sand from my eyes.

"How's that?" the golem provoked. I growled just as I got the sand out, getting ready for a counter attack. Before I could get an attack in, I was forcibly pushed forward. I felt the fire inside of me dim, and pain engulf my body. I coughed, getting back up slowly.

"No you idiots! That's the wrong fire type! They're the one trying to help!" A voice yelled. _Again, another 'mon is yelling at us. It's like he's spectating!_ I realized that what had hurt me was an attack from a water-type. I looked behind me to see a mudkip, marill, and a poliwhirl looking straight at us. They looked scared to see me staring at them. Realizing they were not worth my time at the moment, I faced against my attacker. Two boulders were flying at me, and I was quick enough to dodge the first one. The second one was too far for me, and quickly heading towards the water pokemon. I was unable to react in time to protect them, and cringed, looking away from the attack about to happen.

Nearly coming to a halt in midair, the boulder was surrounded by a blue aura as it did a 180, and flung back towards the golem. He caught it, but skidded back towards the house, which had finally crumbled to the ground. James appeared from my left, a sight I was very happy to see. "2 against 4 isn't very fair. Let's change that," He growled.

The ground shook as I tried to steady my ground. James visible held onto my left leg for support. The golem seemed to take the worst of the pain, as he began to shake physically, and part of the ground gave in, causing him to fall partly in. He let out a pained yell as the earthquake stopped as quickly as it started. The soft pitter patter of paws came to my right. I turned to see a Flygon who I immediately recognized. "I may drop our cub by accident, but I'm allowed to drop you," Drake sassed. He quickly flew into the air, and went straight to Julia, who was pinned by Brim. "Let's go for a ride!" Drake quipped as he picked up Brim and flew straight into the air. _Sometimes… Sometimes that flygon scares me._

James went in for the kabutops as I went in to hit the golem once more, before he was able to completely exit his hole. "Listen, get that fire under control, go!" The voice yelled. Quickly, the water pokemon rushed past me and began to attempt to douse the flames with their water. I went in for an uppercut on the golem, who was visible angered by now. We exchanged blows, each of us getting more and more bloodied. I went for a punch, but he was quicker, and caught my hand. He pushed forward, bending my arm at an awkward angle as I yelped. Once more, he lifted me above his head, and threw me straight into the tree.

With a sickening crunch, the tree was bent at an angle. I managed to move before the entire tree came forward, hitting the ground with a thud. "Ok… Ok, I'm hurt," I managed as I struggled to stand back up. The golem slowly walked forward at me. For a moment, I thought this was it. This was how I was going to die. _At least I'll see Lucas soon enough._ He raised his fist, and punched my cheek, causing me to fall to the ground. Without a delay, I saw him raise his arms above his head, getting ready for a smash.

Instead, he screamed out in pain as he was covered with three jet streams of water. He turned around, furious. Suddenly, Brim fell to ground right next to me. "That's it, we're out! Let's go! Lets go!" He yelled as he hobbled off. The golem looked furious, but followed him, followed by Helen. The kabutops stayed around for another couple of seconds before he dove into the ground, disappearing into the earth after his friends.

"Everyone ok?" The voice asked. I wanted to say yes, but I let my head rest on the ground. "I'm going to find some berries to help ok!?"

I finally managed to speak up, "Oh my Arceus, this hurts… I could go for a nap right about now…" I said as I put my head down and closed my eyes. "I need to recover. Julia- you know what, don't care, I'm putting my head down," I whispered as I let my body go limp.


	12. Chapter 10C: Recon

"Listen to me. We need to go now. There's a fire!" I shouted at the only water pokemon I knew. "Please, let's hurry!"

"Dammit Ayer, alright let's go." I flapped my wings, taking off into the air. Mozey the marill, Mull the mudkip, and Lance the poliwhirl followed me from below. We were heading into the no-go zone as we liked to call it, where humans had built a nest for themselves. Mozey spoke again, "Listen you stupid tailow, if this is another joke, next time we're going to completely drench you in water."

I shivered at the thought of being wet, but kept flying. "This is serious, I promise. I was tailing a fire type that was talking about killing some other 'mons. I'm not sure what's going on, but whatever it is can be resolved without the need to kill someone."

"I sure hope so, the damn smoke is covering the moon," Lance replied. We kept in silence as we began to make our way towards the fire. It was only a few minutes, but it felt like hours. My heart was beating fast. I had a much more selfish reason I wanted my friends with me right now too: I was scared. If the fire caught into the trees, it would cause a forest fire. _Mom told me the only time she was in a forest fire in the viridian forest. She lost most of her family, and nearly all her friends but one. I just… I don't want that to happen to me, and I really don't want it to happen to my mom again._

We got to the nest that was on fire, and a few 'mons were outside fighting. I landed on a tree nearest to the action, obscured by the leaves. Right now, it just seemed to be a houndoom, a ninetails, and a blaziken. _A blaziken? You don't see those everydays…_

"Sweet Arceus… This entire forest could go up in flames if we don't do something," Mull stated.

"Yeah, I know that's why- Look out!" I shouted to the blaziken. It looked back towards the nest and quickly dodged a jet of water coming for it. The blaziken looked back towards my direction, before looking back towards the fighting. A houndoom jumped out, screaming something I couldn't hear as it attacked the ninetails. They began to wrestle, and the blaziken was on its way to help when a boulder rolled past it.

"This shit's getting old, you need to learn a new trick." It said with a feminine voice. So it must have been a girl… The golem threw sand at the blaziken, causing her to rub her eyes, before glaring at the golem. She was about to make a move, but water gushed at her from below me. I quickly looked to see Mull blowing water onto the blaziken.

"No you idiots! That's the wrong fire type! They're the ones trying to help!" I screamed at my friends below. Immediately, they stopped and looked straight up at me.

"I thought you said it was a fire type?"

"It is, but not those ones! The ones who started all of this were the houndooms and their friends!"

"You know what, I don't care actually," Lance started, "We need to help them, so-" Lance stopped as a boulder rushed towards them. I wanted to scream, but I was frozen in fear, and it seemed my friends were too. The boulder was engulfed in a blue aura, before it stopped and was thrown back at the golem.

"This isn't your fight. Don't put yourself in danger," A pokemon said. A meowstic ran from the forest and next to the blaziken. "2 against 4 isn't very fair. Let's change that," He growled. The ground shook as a flygon appeared next to the blaziken too, causing the ground beneath the golem to collapse. He said something that I wasn't able to hear, as he was speaking too low. Both the pokemon then went off to attack the others, the flygon going for the houndoom, and the meowstic attacking the kabutops.

"Listen, get that fire under control, go!" I shouted to my friends. They nodded, and ran towards the human nest, attempting to douse it with their water. _I wish I could help, but I'm not a water type. Damn!_ I stayed perched, keeping an eye out for anything I could do to help. I watched the golem pick up the blaziken and throw it towards the tree I was in. Without hesitation, I flew into the air and stayed up there. The tree I was in suddenly gave way, and the blaziken dodged it before collapsing. The golem lifted its arms and went for a sucker punch on the blaziken.

"Guys, stop! We gotta help her!" I shouted at my friends. They quickly turned around, and turned their water onto the golem. He screamed in pain, before turning to look at the water types. I hadn't seen it, but one of the houndooms fell from the sky, and hit the ground before quickly getting back up.

"That's it, we're out! Let's go! Lets go!" He yelled as he half limped, half ran away. The rest of his friends followed him, and soon enough, they were out of sight.

"Everyone ok? I'm going to find some berries to help ok!?" I said, not waiting for an answer as I set off to help these pokemon who needed our help.

* * *

 **That's the end of the Chapter 10 bomb. This is something I've wanted to try, using a part a b and c etc, to show an important chapter that happens between all of them, and through multiple perspectives. Please let me know if you enjoyed this, or want me to not do it again. Please note that this wouldn't happen every chapter, just big important ones.**


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